1863  - 1913. 


ST.  PAUL'S  CHURCH 

CHESTNUT  HILL 
PHILADELPHIA 


THE  COMMEMORATION  OF  THE  FIFTY  YEARS 

OF 

THE  REVEREND  DR.  JOHN  ANDREWS  HARRIS 

AS  MINISTERIN-CHARGE,  AND  RECTOR. 


BX5920 
P5S7 
A3 


fcibrarjp  of  Che  Cheolojical  ^tminary 

PRINCETON    .    NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

Professor  K.   L.   Savage 

A3 


^(^MCAvC\t\^n\c\.^    rcL.. 


1863-1913 


ST.  PAUL'S  CHURCH 

CHESTNUT  HILL 
PHILADELPHIA 


The  Commemoration  of  the  Fifty  Years  of 

THE    REVEREND   DR.  JOHN   ANDREWS   HARRIS 
AS  MINISTER-IN-CHARGE  AND  RECTOR. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


I.  Prefatory  Note. 

II.  The  Sermon  of  the  Right  Reverend 

The  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania 

III.  The  Meeting  of  the  Parishoners. 

IV.  The  Rector's  Sermon. 

V.  The  List  of  the  Rectors,  Curates,  Wardens,  Vestrymen 

and  Pewholders. 


1913 
SAINT    PAUL'S    CHURCH 

CHESTNUT  HILL. 


The  fifty  years  of  the  services  of  the  Reverend  Dr. 
John  Andrews  Harris  to  his  parish  were  commemorated  on 
15th  and  16th  June,  1913. 

On  15th  June,  the  fourth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  the 
Holy  Communion  was  celebrated  at  two  services  as  the 
highest  possible  expression  of  corporate  and  individual 
thanksgiving;  and  the  sermon  was  preached  by  the  Right 
Reverend,  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Bishop  was 
assisted  in  the  services  by  the  Reverend  Dr.  J.  DeWolf 
Perry,  Rector  Emeritus  of  Calvary  Church,  Germantown, 
and  President  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Diocese 
of  Pennsylvania;  the  Reverend  Dr.  Samuel  Upjohn,  Rector 
of  St.  Luke's  Church,  Germantown ;  the  Reverend  Dr.  John 
Andrews  Harris,  Rector  of  Saint  Paul's,  Chestnut  Hill;  the 
Reverend  Dr.  Thompson  Cole,  Rector  of  Saint  Paul's  Church, 
Cheltenham;  the  Reverend  J.  Clayton  Mitchell,  Rector  of 
Calvary  Church,  Germantown,  and  formerly  Curate  of  Saint 
Paul's,  Chestnut  Hill;  and  the  Reverend  J.  Ogle  Warfield, 
Curate  of  Saint  Paul's,  Chestnut  Hill. 

On  the  evening  of  16th  June,  a  meeting  of  the  parish- 
ioners was  held  in  the  Church  building,  at  which  prayers 
were  read  by  the  Reverend  J.  Clayton  Mitchell,  hymns  were 
sung  by  the  choir  and  congregation,  and  addresses  were 
made  by  C.  Stuart  Patterson,  Esquire,  Chairman  of  the 
meeting;  by  the  Honorable  William  Potter,  one  of  the  Senior 
Vestrymen ;  by  George  Wharton  Pepper,  Esquire,  and  Fran- 
cis A.  Lewis,  Esquire,  Deputies  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  the  General  Convention  of  the  Church,  and  by 
Edward  S,  Buckley,  Jr.,  Esquire,  the  Rector's  Warden.  Mr. 
Buckley,  on  behalf  of  the  parishioners  and  other  friends  of 
the  Rector,  presented  to  him  a  purse  as  an  acknowledge- 
ment of  the  existence  of  a  debt  which  the  parish  owed,  and 
still  owes  to  him,  and  which  never  can  be  paid. 

There  are  printed  in  this  record  of  the  commemorative 
proceedings  the  sermon  of  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  speeches  at  the  parish  meeting,  the 
Rector's  sermon,  and  a  list  of  the  Rectors,  Curates,  War- 
dens, Vestrymen,  pew-holders  and  seat-holders  of  the 
parish  from  its  organization  to  the  present  time. 

3 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/commemorationoffOOstpa 


SERMON 


By 

The  Right  Reverend  PhiHp  M.  Rhinelander, 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania 

15  June, 1913 

"A  GOOD  SHEPHERD" 


A  GOOD  SHEPHERD. 

"I  am  the  Good  Shepherd  and  I  know  mine  own,  and  my  own  know 
me,  even  as  the  Father  knoweth  me,  and  I  know  the  Father  and  I  lay  down 
my  life  for  the  sheep.  And  other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold ; 
them  also  I  must  bring  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice;  and  they  shall  be- 
come one  flock  and  one  shepherd." 

S.JohnX:  14-17  (R-  V.) 


I  suppose  there  is  no  word  in  human  speech  which  so 
perfectly  describes  the  relation  of  God  to  His  people  as  the 
word  "Shepherd."  It  is,  of  course,  no  substitute  for  the 
word  "Father,"  but  it  does  explain  in  terms  of  human  need 
and  human  expectation,  the  meaning  of  God's  Fatherhood. 
Sheep  are  very  ignorant,  and  we,  God's  children,  like  sheep, 
are  very  ignorant,  not  knowing  what  is  good  or  where  is 
peace.  Over  against  our  ignorance  stands  God's  sure  and 
unswerving  wisdom.  Who  knows  us  all  and  all  things.  Sheep 
are  very  weak  and  helpless,  bound  to  destroy  themselves, 
to  surround  themselves  with  perils,  to  become  an  easy  prey 
to  every  enemy ;  and  we,  God's  children,  are  very  helpless  be- 
fore the  storms  of  sin,  and  the  onset  of  temptation,  and  the 
clouds  and  threatenings  of  sorrow.  Over  against  our  weak- 
ness stands  the  firm  majesty  of  God's  protection,  always 
ready  and  always  omnipotent  to  help.  And  finally,  sheep  are 
very  wayward  and  very  slow  to  learn,  forgetting  the  simp- 
lest lessons,  unreliable,  untrustworthy;  and  so  are  we,  for- 
getful, wilful,  wayward.  Over  against  our  wilfulness  and 
waywardness  stands  the  unconquerable  patience  of  God's 
love,  who,  loving,  loves  unto  the  end. 

So,  in  pre-Christian  ages,  the  vision  of  the  Shepherd — 
God  filled  the  prophet's  eyes  and  stirred  the  Psalmists* 
hearts.  If  it  were  only  true,  if  God  were  seen  and  known 
and  realized  as  wisdom,  strength  and  patience,  available  for 
each  and  all,  then  would  all  human  needs  be  satisfied,  all  hu- 
man faith  fulfilled.  So  they  sang  and  dreamed  and  praised 
and  prayed.  "The  Lord  is  my  shepherd;  I  shall  not  want. 
He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures ;  he  leadeth  me 
beside  the  still  waters."  "He  shall  feed  His  flock  like  a 
shepherd;  He  shall  gather  the  lambs  with  His  arms  and 
carry  them  in  His  bosom,  and  shall  gently  lead  those  that  are 
with  young."  There  is  the  great  appealing  vision,  the  great 
heartfelt  aspiration.  If  only  it  were  true,  if  only  we  could 
see  and  know  it. 

And  behold,  brethren,  it  is  true  and  perfectly  fulfilled 


8 

in  Christ,  who  is  Himself  the  answer  to  all  human  prayer, 
the  revelation  of  God's  perfect  truth,  the  great  'Amen'  of  all 
God's  promises;  through  Whom  words  become  power,  and 
revelation  a  blessed  fact,  and  loving  purposes  a  living  Pres- 
ence. So  all  that  God  had  in  heart  and  mind  to  give  us,  all 
that  we  and  our  forefathers  were  longing  for,  came  actually 
to  pass  when  the  Eternal,  Incarnate,  Only  Begotten  Son  of 
God,  standing  on  this  earth,  among  men  and  women  such  as 
we  are,  claimed  and  took  the  title,  proclaimed  to  all  men, 
and  for  all  time,  the  truth :  "I  am  the  good  Shepherd."  That 
is  the  real  meaning  of  the  goodness  of  His  Shepherding, 
namely,  that  it  is  no  longer  dream,  but  fact,  no  longer  prom- 
ise, but  a  great  reality,  that  He  is  actually  doing,  or  waiting 
to  do,  for  each,  for  all,  for  always,  the  perfect  work  of  shep- 
herding. For  each,  for  all,  for  always; — Christ  in  His  indi- 
vidual devotion,  the  good  Shepherd  for  each,  because  He 
knows  each  one  and  comes  close  up  to  him  and  stays  close  by 
him,  and  understands  and  watches  each  as  though  he  were 
the  only  one.  *1  know  Mine  own,  and  Mine  own  know  me." 
Christ,  in  His  inclusive  desire,  the  Good  Shepherd,  not  only 
for  each,  but  equally  for  all.  As  He  walks  up  and  down 
among  His  lambs  and  sheep,  none  the  less  His  heart  is  always 
burning  for  those  "other  sheep"  outside  the  fold  as  yet, 
whom  He  must  bring  and  bless.  "Other  sheep  I  have," 
straying  now  upon  the  mountains  as  sheep  not  having  shep- 
herds: "Them  also  I  must  bring  and  they  shall  hear  my 
voice;  and  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one  shepherd." 
Christ,  in  His  unchanging  faithfulness  the  Good  Shepherd 
for  always.  The  Life  that  He  lays  down  is  a  life  that  has  no 
end,  that  has  passed  through  death  that  it  might  be  forever- 
more  available  for  each  and  every  sheep.  He,  the  good  Shep- 
herd, because  He  is  the  same  yesterday,  today  and  forever, 
can  make  good  His  word.    "I  am  the  good  Shepherd." 

Brethren,  it  belongs  to  Him,  and  Him  alone,  to  speak 
that  word  and  make  that  claim.  But  none  the  less,  the 
Christian  Ministry  from  the  beginning  has  caught  something 
of  that  vision  and  felt  something  of  that  responsibility.  The 
under-shepherds  are  to  be  like  the  Perfect  Shepherd.  He 
will  show  through  them  some  measure  of  His  goodness.  And 
our  own  Church,  especially,  has  emphasized,  and  re-empha- 
sized, this  pastoral  element  of  Ministry  as  its  very  heart  and 
soul.  Here  lies  the  rule  of  the  Church's  Ministry  and  the 
test  of  all  her  Ministers.  For  this  they  are  ordained  and 
commissioned.  For  this  they  are  given  charge  over  the  souls 
of  men ;  that  they  may  be  good  shepherds  under  Christ. 

This  ideal  of  shepherding  has  been  exemplified  in  Him 


9 

for  whose  wonderful  faithfulness  and  fruitfulness  in  min- 
istry we  are  gathered  here  together  this  morning  to  render 
hearty  and  humble  thanks  to  God.  No  other  Priest  in  this 
whole  Diocese;  no  other  probably  in  the  recollection  of  any 
of  us  here  present;  very  few  I  think  in  the  history  of  this 
Church  from  its  beginning  to  the  present  time,  have  so  bril- 
liantly and  beautifully  reflected  and  reproduced  before  the 
eyes  and  hearts  of  two  whole  generations,  the  personal 
power  and  gracious  goodness  of  the  pastorate  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  life  of  Doctor  Harris  has  been  a  life  of  unriv- 
aled richness  of  experience  and  of  a  great  diversity  of  in- 
terests and  activities.  The  Battle  of  Gettysburg  had  just 
been  fought,  and  the  news  of  it  had  just  reached  Philadel- 
phia, on  that  very  Sunday  fifty  years  ago  when  he  preached 
his  first  sermon  as  Minister  in  charge.  Think  of  what  the  in- 
terval has  meant  in  politics,  in  social  life,  in  economic  ad- 
justments and  reconstructions ;  in  the  building  of  cities  and 
the  movements  of  trade  and  population ;  in  the  expansion  of 
the  Gospel  and  the  outflow  of  benevolence  and  social  service ; 
in  the  massed  and  massive  strength  of  our  Diocese;  in  the 
growth  of  our  Institutions  and  in  the  unity  and  vigor  of  our 
life.  In  all  and  through  all,  his  eyes  have  marked  the  signs, 
and  his  heart  kindled  with  quick  sympathies,  and  his  mind 
analyzed  with  discerning  judgment,  and  his  will  gone  forth 
in  strong,  effective  action  and  co-operation.  In  such  a  life, 
even  such  a  crowded  and  thrilling  history  as  that  of  the  last 
half  century  finds  both  an  accurate  touchstone  and  a  singu- 
larly comprehensive  record.  In  such  a  life  there  are  mater- 
ials for  volumes,  for  volumes  bearing  on,  and  dealing  with, 
the  chief  causes  and  concerns  of  millions  of  our  people  in 
the  most  critical  and  searching  period  of  their  development. 

And  yet,  summarizing  the  whole  of  it,  separating  the 
threads,  grouping  the  incidents  and  interests,  trying  to  say 
all  very  briefly,  as  we  must,  his  life  is  above  all  else  a  com- 
pelling commentary  on  the  work  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  It 
is  an  inspired  sermon  preached,  wrought  out  among  us,  that 
we  may  understand  the  meaning  of  the  pastorate  of  Jesus 
Christ.  "I  am  the  good  Shepherd  and  I  know  Mine  own  and 
My  own  know  Me,  and  I  lay  down  My  life  for  My  sheep ;  and 
other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold.  Them  also  I 
must  bring,  and  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one  Shepherd." 
The  words  and  claims  of  Christ  may  fittingly  and  by  His 
own  blest  will,  be  applied,  as  I  have  said,  in  their  true  de- 
gree of  meaning  to  this,  His  faithful  servant. 

First,  for  his  individual  devotion  to  his  flock.  "I  know 
my  own  and  mine  own  know  Me."    How  those  words  must 


10 

thrill  in  the  hearts  of  every  member  of  this  Parish !  For  fifty 
years  this  and  this  alone  has  been  the  rule  of  your  Rector's 
life,  and  the  dear  desire  of  his  heart.  In  sickness  and  in 
health,  in  youth  and  age,  in  joy  and  sorrow,  in  penitence 
and  conflict,  in  doubts  and  fears,  in  prayers  and  praises,  he 
has  been  knowing  you,  and  calling  you  by  name,  and  by  that 
knowledge  has  been  bringing  the  individualizing  love  of 
Christ  Himself  home  as  the  very  meaning  of  the  Gospel,  as 
the  very  hope  of  your  salvation.  And,  on  your  side,  you  have 
been  knowing  him,  and  knowing  him  have  been  ready  to  fol- 
low where  he  has  led  and  to  prove  your  love,  as  love  is  al- 
ways proved,  by  perfect  trust.  That  is  the  supreme  test  of 
a  good  shepherd,  the  test  set  by  Christ  Himself.  A  stranger 
sheep  will  never  follow,  and  how  many  shepherds  are  stran- 
gers to  their  sheep !  Sheep  do  not  follow,  for  they  know  not 
the  voice  of  strangers.  But  the  good  shepherd  calleth  His 
own  by  name.  That  is  the  point.  He  knows  each  one  by 
name,  and  so  each  follows  Him,  for  daily  food  and  drink,  for 
health  and  healing;  "out  of  the  bondage  of  corruption  into 
the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God."  There  is  no 
more  perfect,  no  more  sacred  bond  than  this.  It  is  the  hol- 
iest and  most  gracious  of  all  earth's  relationships.  It  is  God's 
great  gift  to  you. 

And  next,  together  with  this  individual  devotion,  has 
been  a  continual  wise  and  earnest  desire  for  the  increase  of 
the  flock,  for  the  enlarging  of  the  fold,  for  the  edification  of 
the  Church.  "Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold. 
Them  also  I  must  bring."  I  am  not  competent,  either  by 
depth  of  spiritual  experience  or  by  length  of  residence  among 
you,  to  speak  with  authority  of  Dr.  Harris'  signal  service  to 
the  Diocese  and  to  the  Church  at  large. 

But  I  have  at  least  seen  and  heard  enough  to  make  me 
quite  confident  that  the  position  and  prestige,  which  we  as  a 
Diocese  have  in  the  councils  of  the  Church,  and  loyalty  to 
our  Mother,  of  which  we  rightly  make  our  boast,  and  the 
unity  which  seems,  thank  God,  Steadily  to  be  gathering 
strength  among  us,  are  in  chief  measure  due  to  his  charac- 
ter, ability  and  influence.  Devoted  to  his  people  and  the 
Parish  with  a  devotion  which  knows  neither  end  nor  limit, 
none  the  less  there  has  been  no  element  of  parochialism  in 
all  his  ministry.  Breadth  of  vision,  without  a  breach  of 
party  spirit,  has  marked  all  he  has  ever  said  or  done.  Ab- 
solute, unflinching  loyalty  to  the  Church's  doctrine,  disci- 
pline and  worship,  has  been  the  unfailing  record  of  his  life. 
A  kindling  belief  in  the  Church's  mission  and  in  the  gra- 
cious plans  and  purposes  which  God  would  realize  through 


11 

her  in  this  new  age  and  country,  has  been  and  is  his  ruling 
motive  and  his  constant  aim.  Love  alone  grows  as  it  gives. 
The  more  one  loves,  the  more  one  finds  it  possible  to  love. 
A  shepherd's  goodness  consists  finally  in  this,  that,  moving 
about  among  his  own  loved  sheep  and  lambs,  calling,  caring 
for,  feeding,  healing,  leading,  guarding  them,  none  the  less 
he  is  always  conscious  of,  always  praying  for,  always  moved 
with  compassion  over,  the  multitudes  without,  scattered 
abroad,  not  having  shepherds.  These  "other  sheep"  them 
also,  by  all  means  and  in  all  ways,  ''them  also  I  must  bring." 
There  is  no  peace,  no  end,  no  victory  until  all  are  won,  until 
there  is  one  flock  under  One  Shepherd. 

So  the  story  runs  to  its  fulfillment.  Individual  devotion, 
and  inclusive  desire  both  find  their  sum  and  crown  in  the  rec- 
ord of  an  unchanging  faithfulness.  Brethren,  the  very  es- 
sence of  the  pastoral  relation  lies  in  its  permanence.  It  is 
a  lifelong  work.  It  is  a  life  that  must  be  laid  down,  and 
given  up ;  not  a  piece  of  it,  but  the  whole  of  it ;  not  one  year, 
or  five  years,  or  ten  years,  but,  if  God  be  gracious,  fifty  years 
and  more.  For  to  know  one  single  sheep  means  to  know  it 
from  its  beginning  to  its  ending.  No  mere  cross  section  cut 
ever  yields  the  secret  of  a  life.  In  all  things  that  grow  there 
is  "first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  then  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear."  First  the  birth  and  baptism ;  then  the  teaching  and  the 
confirmation;  then  the  constant  ministration  of  the  Sacra- 
ment of  life ;  then  the  solemnity  of  Holy  Matrimony  and  the 
marvelous  miracle  of  home  and  family;  then  the  life  work 
and  the  full  tide  of  life's  responsibihties ;  then  the  waning 
powers  and  the  final  weakness  and  the  holy  passing.  To  know 
one  single  sheep  means  to  know  all  this  of  one.  Of  course, 
none  knows  us  perfectly,  save  only  Christ,  the  Living  One, 
the  Eternal  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  all  souls.  But  still,  the 
inner  meaning  of  the  ministry  of  the  Good  Shepherd  does 
come  home  to  one,  and  I  think  no  one  else,  who  has  followed 
and  has  loved  his  own  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  We  are 
so  used  to  shifting,  changing  pastors,  that  we  forget  the 
tragedy  and  loss  involved  when  a  flock  is  given  over  by  one 
shepherd  to  another.  Of  course  it  has  to  be.  It  is  God's 
ordering  and  the  law  of  mortal  life.  Yet  it  is  always  and  at 
best,  a  mark  of  earthly  imperfection.  At  worst,  it  is  a  griev- 
ous treachery  and  the  exposure  of  a  hireling.  But  where, 
and  when,  if  God  wills  that  there  should  be  a  life-long  tend- 
ing of  the  flock  by  one  good  shepherd,  then  there  is  a  very 
great  and  gracious  revealing  of  His  mercy.  The  fruits  of  it 
are  very  evident.  Strength,  steadfastness,  unity,  a  solid 
sense  of  common  interest,  a  deeply-rooted  faith,  high  ideals 


12 

of  duty,  well  established  habits  of  religion,  close  knit  and 
precious  traditions  of  work  and  worship,  a  real  Church 
home,  a  growing  charity  and  household  love,  real  intimations 
of  immortality,  bright  glimpses  of  paradise  and  heaven,  of 
the  Church  Expectant  and  the  Church  Triumphant — these 
are  the  ripe  fruits  of  long  continued  pastoral  relations,  and 
these  are  yours. 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  your  Rector  spoke  to  you  as  fol- 
lows :  "There  are  conventional  periods  in  the  course  of  time 
when  thought  may  be  gathered  together  in  a  retrospect  of 
the  past  in  order  to  give  a  greater  volume  for  its  movement 
into  the  future,  into  the  swellings  of  the  great  ocean  of  the 
unseen.  The  completion  of  a  Rectorship  in  one  Parish  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century  may  not  unnaturally  be  one  of  such 
periods.  When  two  people  have  lived  in  peace  together  as 
man  and  wife  that  length  of  time,  the  'silver  wedding'  marks 
an  epoch  in  that  joint  life.  The  harmony  of  the  past  is  an 
omen  of  hope,  a  pledge  of  stronger,  deeper  love  for  the  fu- 
ture, even  though  the  'golden  wedding'  be  a  thing  which  the 
shortness  and  uncertainty  of  this  mortal  life  forbids  in  most 
cases  to  anticipate."  Those  were  his  words,  true  in  each  de- 
tail except  in  that  final  prophecy  that  the  "golden  wedding" 
would  not  come.  For  here  it  is,  bringing  with  it  that  strong- 
er and  deeper  love  of  which  twenty-five  years  ago  there  was 
so  clear  a  promise. 

For  myself,  I  count  it  a  personal  privilege  and  pleasure 
beyond  my  power  of  expression,  to  be  allowed  to  share  in 
this  celebration  With  you.  I  shall  always  remember  it  and 
treasure  it.  The  life  of  the  whole  Diocese  will  be  stronger 
for  your  strength  and  more  joyful  for  your  joy,  more  sweet 
and  pure  and  holy  for  God's  great  goodness  to  you.  May 
our  Lord,  who  has  so  bountifully  blessed  and  helped  you 
here,  carry  you  on  to  that  still  deeper  and  more  lasting  love 
and  life  where  all  fear  is  fled  away  and  all  sin  and  sorrow 
gone.  May  all  this  Parish,  living  and  departed,  young  men 
and  maidens,  old  men  and  children,  priest  and  people,  the 
shepherd  and  his  flock,  clear  of  all  shadows,  walking  in  the 
light,  follow  the  Lamb  forever,  whithersoever  He  goeth,  "lost 
in  wonder,  love  and  praise." 


THE  MEETING  OF  THE  PARISH  ON  THE  EVENING 
OF  MONDAY,  16TH  JUNE,  1893. 


C.  Stuart  Patterson,  Esq.,  took  the  chair. 


The  Reverend,  the  Rector  of  Saint  Martin's-in-the- 
Fields,  brought  to  the  meeting  a  letter  which  was  read  as 
an  appropriate  introduction  to  the  proceedings: 

June  16th,  1913. 
The  Rev.  J.  Andrew  Harris,  D.  D. 
Rector,  S.  Paul's  Church, 

Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia. 

Dear  Dr.  Harris : — 

The  Vestry  of  the  Church  of  S.  Martin-in-the-Fields 
convey  to  you  their  heartiest  congratulations  on  the  occasion 
of  the  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  your  connec- 
tion with  S.  Paul's  Church,  Chestnut  Hill,  as  Rector  and 
Minister  in  charge.  During  the  past  twenty-four  years  the 
parish  of  S.  Martin's  has  existed  side  by  side  with  S.  Paul's 
with  unbroken  relations  of  harmony  and  cordial  friendship. 
This  has  been  due  to  your  own  generous  attitude  at  the  be- 
ginning when  S.  Martin's  was  established  within  the 
parochial  boundaries  of  S.  Paul's;  and  to  your  unfailing 
courtesy  and  kindness  in  the  years  which  followed.  We 
wish  to  express  our  appreciation  of  your  unselfish  desire 
for  the  extension  of  the  Church  with  your  cordial  sympathy 
toward  the  movement  to  found  a  new  parish ;  and  that  both 
parishes  have  grown  and  prospered  justifies  the  wisdom  of 
your  attitude  where  a  less  liberal  policy  would  have  resulted 
in  a  distinct  loss  to  the  Church  at  large. 

Two  parishes  in  such  close  proximity  must  necessarily 
feel  each  other's  influence;  and  the  example  of  the  peace 
and  harmony  that  has  existed  at  S.  Paul's  has  not  been  with- 

13 


14 

out  its  fruit  in  the  younger  parish  of  S.  Martin's.  We  wish 
not  only  to  congratulate  you  on  the  culmination  of  these 
fifty  years,  crowned  with  the  devoted  love  of  your  parish- 
ioners and  the  high  respect  of  your  neighbors,  but  we  wish 
you  many  years  of  happiness  in  seeing  the  fruit  of  a  long, 
wise  and  faithful  ministry  and  in  receiving  the  foretaste  of 
its  reward. 

Jacob  LeRoy 

Rector 

Samuel  Frederick  Houston 

Rector's  Warden 

George  Woodward,  M.  D. 

Accounting   Warden 

Nathan  A.  Taylor 
L.  Ashley  Faught,  M.  D. 
Hollinshead  W.  Taylor 
Charles  E.  Van  Pelt 
Francis  D.  Lewis 
Joseph  L.  Bryan 
Samuel  Porcher 
Henry  H.  Kingston 

Vestrymen 


15 

C.  Stuart  Patterson,  Esq.,  said: 

I  have  been  asked  to  preside  over  this  meeting  to-night, 
because  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  present  at  some  of 
the  services  and  to  hear  some  of  the  Rector's  sermons  in  the 
early  weeks  of  his  incumbency  in  the  summer  of  1863 ;  and 
also  because  Doctor  Harris  has  honoured  me  with  his  friend- 
ship from  a  time  long  before  either  he,  or  I,  had  any  expec- 
tation of  living  at  Chestnut  Hill. 

Fifty  years  ago,  Chestnut  Hill  was  a  country  village 
with  an  individuality  of  its  own.  That  day  has  long  since 
passed.  It  is  now  only  a  part  of  a  great  metropolis.  Rural 
lanes  have  been  succeeded  by  city  streets,  and  where  there 
used  to  be  broad  meadows  and  ploughed  fields,  there  are 
now  rows  of  houses.  With  the  growth  of  population,  the 
membership  of  the  parish  has  increased,  and  its  activities 
have  expanded  to  meet  the  changes  of  the  times. 

The  conditions  to-night  are  exceptional.  For  fifty 
years  the  pews  have  heard  from  the  pulpit  its  words  of  warn- 
ing, of  counsel,  and  of  affectionate  entreaty.  To-night,  the 
pulpit  is  to  hear  from  the  pews  their  words  of  thanksgiving 
and  of  hope ;  of  thanksgiving,  that,  for  fifty  years,  the  same 
voice  has  spoken  to  us  from  the  altar  and  the  pulpit,  and  of 
hope  that  that  same  voice  may  long  continue  to  speak  to  us. 
It  is,  therefore,  appropriate  that  he,  whose  every  act  and 
word  for  fifty  years  have  been  a  blessing  to  his  people,  should 
to-night  confine  himself  to  the  utterance  of  the  words  of  ben- 
ediction, which  will  conclude  this  meeting,  and  that  he 
should,  God  willing,  preach  on  Sunday  next  a  sermon  in 
which  he  can  give  us  some  of  the  impressions  of  his  fifty 
years.  He  cannot,  and,  if  he  could,  he  would  not,  tell  all 
of  the  story.  No  one  could.  He  cannot  tell  us  what  effects 
his  precepts  and  his  example  have  had  upon  men  he  knows, 
and  upon  men  he  never  has  known.  He  cannot  tell  how 
efficacious  those  words  and  that  example  have  been  in  keep- 
ing men  to  the  straight  and  narrow  path,  and  in  preserving 
happiness  to  homes. 

The  strength  of  the  bonds  that  bind  the  Rector  to  us, 
and  that  bind  us  to  the  Rector,  is  not  only  in  that  we  have 
listened  to  his  sermons  for  so  many  years,  and  in  that  we 
have  reverently  bowed  before  his  ministrations  at  the  altar. 
It  is  also  in  his  daily  life  among  us ;  in  the  happy  marriages 
to  whose  wedding  ceremonies  he  has  brought  the  blessings 
of  the  Church ;  in  the  children  whom  he  has  held  in  his  arms 
at  their  christening;  the  children,  some  of  whom  are  now 
men  and  women  of  middle  age,  and  some  of  whom  are  now 
in  heaven;  in  the  comfort  he  has  brought  in  hours  of  sick- 


16 

ness ;  and  in  the  consolation  he  has  given  in  days  of  sorrow. 

The  Rector  preached  his  first  sermon  in  this  parish 
when  the  guns  of  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  resounded 
through  the  land.  Since  then,  there  has  been  foreign  war; 
there  have  been  embittered  political  contests  in  the  country ; 
there  has  been  dissension  in  the  Diocese,  and  in  the  Church 
at  large,  but  within  these  walls  there  always  has  been  peace. 
Yet  it  never  has  been  the  peace  of  compromise,  or  of  cow- 
ardice. The  Rector  has  always  had  the  courage  of  his  opin- 
ions, and  no  man  who  cared  to  know  could  ever  fail  to  know 
where  he  stood,  and  where  he  stands,  upon  every  burning 
issue  in  Church  or  State.  Within  the  parish,  there  have  been 
wide  variances  of  views  upon  the  political  and  ecclesiastical 
questions  of  the  day.  There  are  such  variances  now.  Never- 
theless, there  always  have  been,  and,  pray  God,  there  always 
will  be  here,  unanimity  in  devotion  to  the  Church  and  in 
affection  for  the  Rector,  and  mutual  respect  for  honest  dif- 
ferences of  opinion. 

That  this  has  been,  and  is  so,  is  largely  because,  for 
fifty  years,  the  teaching  from  the  pulpit  has  been  that,  so 
long  as  there  is  a  world  of  sin,  and  misery,  and  wretched- 
ness around  us;  so  long  as  there  are  poverty  to  be  relieved, 
suffering  to  be  alleviated,  and  sorrow  to  be  comforted;  so 
long  as  men  are  to  be  saved  from  utter  wreck  and  ruin ;  the 
Church  has  a  work  before  it,  which  can  best  be  done,  if  its 
people,  bearing  in  mind  their  agreement  in  the  essentials  of 
the  faith,  and  forgetting  their  minor  and  less  important  dif- 
ferences, do  to  the  utmost  of  their  abilities  the  duty  of  the 
hour. 

It  does  not  often  happen  amid  the  changes  of  this  mor- 
tal life,  that  any  human  relation  continues  unbroken  for 
fifty  years.  It  does  not  often  happen  that  a  man  of  strong 
personality,  a  learned  theologian,  a  preacher  of  convincing 
power,  a  pastor,  *'so  anxious  not  to  go  to  heaven  alone," 
should  steadfastly  resist  all  allurements  to  wider  and  more 
attractive  fields  of  duty,  should  resolutely  put  to  one  side 
every  suggestion  of  ecclesiastical  preferment,  and  should 
devote  himself  for  half  a  century  to  the  rectorship  of  one 
parish.    All  honour  to  Dr.  Harris  for  so  doing! 

The  Rector  has  always  appealed  to  the  intellects,  as  well 
as  to  the  consciences,  and  to  the  affections,  of  his  parishion- 
ers, and  he  has,  in  the  past,  and  in  the  present,  attracted  to 
the  service  of  the  Church  and  to  the  work  of  the  parish  a 
singularly  strong  and  earnest  body  of  men  and  women. 
"In  these  brave  ranks  I  only  see  the  gaps, 

Thinking  of  dear  ones  whom  the  dumb  turf  wraps." 


17 

From  these  pews  there  rise  before  me  memories  of 
those  who,  in  the  past,  have  laboured  for  the  church  and 
who  are  not,  in  bodily  presence  with  us  to-night;  gracious 
gentlewomen,  who  brought  to  the  service  of  the  Church  their 
zeal,  their  devotion,  and  their  boundless  charity;  fair  maid- 
ens and  stalwart  youths,  who  knew  only  the  springtime  of 
life ;  soldiers,  who  never  failed  to  heed  the  call  of  duty ;  grave 
merchants  and  captains  of  industry;  skillful  physicians; 
learned  lawyers,  some  of  them  leaders  of  the  bar ;  and,  last, 
but  not  least,  those  who  in  their  years  of  daily  toil,  kept  the 
faith,  and  who  are  now  enjoying  in  the  realms  of  blessed- 
ness that  peace  and  happiness,  which  were  not  given  to  them 
upon  earth. 

"What  greetings  come  there  from  the  voiceless  dead, 
What  welcome,  salutation,  or  reply. 
What  pressure  from  the  hands  that  lifeless  lie? 
They  are  not  here,  they  all  are  gone 
Into  the  land  of  shadows — all  save  one. 
Honour,  and  reverence,  and  the  good  repute 
That  follow  faithful  service  as  its  fruit. 
Be  unto  him,  whom,  living,  we  salute." 


The  Honourable  William  Potter  said : 

The  history  of  the  world  is  the  biography  of  its  great 
men.  This  has  been  truly  said,  and  the  character  of  a  com- 
munity is  in  the  life  of  its  representative  men.  This  special 
community  has,  therefore,  honored  itself  in  honoring  the 
rector  of  this  Church,  because  it  is  a  fact,  that  nothing  shows 
the  provincialism  of  a  people  so  much,  as  when  they  forget 
to  honor  their  representative  men.  The  stranger  coming  to 
Saint  Paul's  often  asks,  why  there  are  so  many  men  in  the 
congregation.  Speaking  as  a  man,  and  knowing  the  thoughts 
of  other  men,  they  come,  because,  in  the  materialistic  strug- 
gle of  the  twentieth  century,  with  the  hardening  environ- 
ment of  the  six  days'  fight,  they  like  to  come  to  a  service  on 
the  seventh,  where  they  will  not  be  given  the  stone  of  dogma 
and  of  creed  controversy,  but  the  bread  of  life.  Many  of 
you  are  familiar  with  that  beautiful  story  in  "Beside  the 
Bonnie  Brier  Bush"  of  the  good  old  Scotch  widow  with  an 
only  child,  a  son  dedicated  to  the  ministry.  Overtaken 
with  a  fatal  illness,  she  calls  that  son  to  her  bedside  and 
says:  "The  one  great  regret  of  my  life  is  that  I  shall  not 
be  able  to  hear  you  preach  your  first  sermon,  but  I  shall  be 


18 

there  in  spirit,  and  I  ask  you,  as  a  good  soldier,  to  preach  a 
sermon  in  the  name  of  your  great  Captain,  the  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ ;"  and  how,  five  years  later,  that  young 
man  coming  back  to  preach  in  the  village  kirk,  having  pre- 
pared a  sermon  which  he  considers  an  unanswerable  solu- 
tion to  all  the  controversies  of  the  day,  is  reminded  by  his 
aunt  of  that  dying  prayer  of  his  mother;  and,  taking  that 
precious  document  to  which  he  had  devoted  so  much  time, 
he  throws  it  into  the  fire,  and  preaches  a  sermon  upon  the 
Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  power  of  His  resur- 
rection, during  the  delivery  of  which,  as  the  narrator  states, 
you  could  almost  feel  that  the  Christ  was  in  the  kirk.  It  is 
such  sermons  that  we  secure  from  our  rector,  and  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  men,  hungering  for  spiritual  food, 
come  in  large  numbers  to  Saint  Paul's. 

We  are  celebrating  the  fiftieth  year  of  a  rector,  who, 
before  he  ever  became  a  rector,  has  always  been  a  true  man, 
and  therefore  has  always  preached  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  man  with  his  temptations,  with  his  sorrows,  and  with  his 
cares  and  tribulations.  He  has  devoted  himself  to  trying 
to  teach  us  the  mysteries  of  pain;  the  mysteries  of  sor- 
row, and  the  mysteries  of  death,  and  how,  after  all,  they 
are  swallowed  up  and  are  as  nothing  compared  to  the  tri- 
umphant power  of  the  Resurrection.  It  will  be  told  you  to- 
night by  those  competent  to  speak  of  the  wonderful  influ- 
ence of  this  rector  of  ours,  not  only  in  the  diocese  of  Penn- 
sylvania, but  in  the  Episcopal  Church  at  large.  I  know  of 
no  man  who  is  more  devoted  to  its  teaching,  and  yet  I 
know  of  no  man  who  is  more  catholic  in  the  univer- 
sality of  his  belief,  that  God's  children  are  everywhere. 
Several  years  past,  visiting  Rome  as  a  tourist,  I  met 
with  a  very  dear  friend  who  had  just  resigned  his  po- 
sition of  rector  in  the  American  College ;  and  when  I  said  to 
him,  "Why  have  you  resigned?"  he  said:  "Because  I  was 
compelled  to  do  so,  for  they  consider  I  am  too  liberal  in  my 
views.  We  all  take  our  creeds  by  the  accident  of  birth,  and 
no  man  or  set  of  men,  or  church,  can  make  me  believe  that 
all  of  God's  people  are  in  any  one  communion.  I  believe 
that  every  man,  woman  and  child  that  tries  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  Master  seven  days  in  the  week,  and  treats 
his  fellow  men  as  though  they  were  his  brethren,  is  not  far 
from  the  Kingdom  of  God."  The  men,  women  and  children 
that  sit  under  the  ministrations  of  this  dear  rector  cannot 
help  but  feel  that  this  incident  typifies  the  character  of 
preaching  and  consolation  that  we  receive  in  St.  Paul's. 

If  any  one  were  to  ask  what  is  the  chief  characteristic 


19 

that  makes  Dr.  Harris  so  beloved,  so  useful  and  so  powerful 
in  his  influence,  the  answer  from  a  close  observer  would 
come  at  once,  "the  pertinacity  of  his  faithfulness  to  duty." 
Not  the  pertinacity  of  doggedness,  but  of  constancy,  stead- 
fastness and  real  love  of  duty  as  the  controlling  influence  of 
his  life. 

The  American  people  in  general  and  many  of  the  St. 
Paul  Parish  in  particular,  are  birds  of  passage  and  flit  from 
place  to  place,  as  the  seasons  change.  Who  ever  heard  of 
Dr.  Harris  being  away  from  Chestnut  Hill?  In  the  snows 
of  January,  or  the  heat  of  August,  the  poor  or  the  rich,  who 
need  the  sympathy  of  a  loving  rector,  or  the  ministrations 
of  his  Church,  can  always  find  Dr.  Harris,  and  it  has  been 
so  for  the  half  century  of  his  faithful  and  devoted  steward- 
ship. 

The  rector's  father  was  a  graduate  of  the  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point.  For  ten  years  he  served  in  the 
regular  army,  and  then  entered  the  Ministry.  His  son 
also  attended  a  military  school  at  West  Point,  (not  the  Mili- 
tary Academy)  so  that  by  ancestry,  by  education  and  by 
pre-disposition  the  rector  has  always  been  a  good  soldier 
in  the  army  of  his  great  Captain.  He  has  helped  more  peo- 
ple than  he  has  any  conception  of,  to  fight  the  good  fight, 
in  the  midst  of  the  weakness  and  sorrow  of  this  mortal  life. 
I  know  it  is  the  sentiment  of  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  this  congregation  to-night,  that  our  prayers  shall  go  up 
without  ceasing,  that  his  lovely  life  may  be  spared  for  many 
years  to  come;  for  we  feel  of  him  that  he  is  one  of  those 
of  whom  the  Master  said :  "Be  thou  faithful  unto  death  and 
I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 


George  Wharton  Pepper,  Esq.,  said: 

If  this  were  merely  a  parochial  celebration  I  should  feel 
that  I  had  no  place  in  the  list  of  speakers.  The  honor  in  that 
event  would  be  reserved  for  faithful  vestrymen  and  those 
fortunate  enough  to  be  parishioners  of  Saint  Paul's,  such  as 
Mr.  Patterson  himself  and  Mr.  Potter  and  Mr.  Buckley.  I 
suppose  that  I  might  have  been  called  upon  as  one  of  Doctor 
Harris's  friends;  and  yet  he  has  so  many  friends  and  ad- 
mirers, and  his  relations  to  each  are  so  intimate  and  personal, 
that  any  one  of  us  would  hesitate  to  attempt  to  represent 
the  others.     And  if  this  occasion  were  merely  a  matter  of 


20 

diocesan  interest,  I  should  still  be  without  excuse  for  speak- 
ing; because  my  friend,  Mr.  Lewis,  who  is  to  follow  me,  is 
much  better  qualified  than  I  to  speak  of  Doctor  Harris's 
contributions  to  diocesan  life.  It  is  because  this  occasion 
is  a  matter  of  great  moment  to  the  church  at  large,  because 
this  anniversary  is  a  matter  of  great  public  importance,  that 
it  may  be  permitted  to  a  mere  outsider  to  raise  his  voice 
here.  And  yet,  in  so  speaking,  I  do  not  wish  to  ignore  the 
personal  tie  which  has  bound  me  all  my  life  to  Doctor  Harris. 
In  my  early  childhood  he  was  the  companion  in  happiness 
of  those  who  were  near  and  dear  to  me,  and  when  dark  days 
came,  he  stood  forth  as  the  friend  and  the  consoler.  Indeed 
he  is  the  first  clergyman  whom  I  distinctly  recall,  and  Saint 
Paul's  is  the  first  church  of  which  I  have  a  vivid  mental  im- 
pression. In  the  long  years  that  lie  betv/een,  I  have  come 
to  know,  perhaps  a  thousand  clergymen,  but  there  are  very, 
very  few  who  can  stand  the  test  of  comparison  with  him 
who  in  my  consciousness  first  emerged  as  a  representative 
of  his  order. 

Any  man  whose  active  life  has  covered  the  last  fifty 
years  is  one  who  has  been  called  upon  to  face  changes  of 
vast  import  not  only  in  the  conditions  of  our  external  life, 
but  in  the  characteristic  tendencies  of  the  world  of  thought 
within  us.  Nobody  cares  very  much  how  laughable  the 
efforts  of  the  ordinary  citizen  may  be  when  he  attempts  to 
adjust  himself  to  these  changes,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  grave 
concern  to  us  that  our  rector  should  be  wise  in  his  adjust- 
ment. If  change  finds  him  perverse  and  unsympathetic, 
he  quickly  loses  his  influence  with  the  young.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  he  is  quick  to  indorse  every  untried  suggestion  for 
social  uplift  and  betterment,  he  soon  loses  the  confidence  of 
the  mature.  It  seems  to  me  a  very  fortunate  circumstance 
that  all  his  life  Doctor  Harris  has  been  a  teacher  of  youth. 
I  know,  for  example,  of  his  work  at  the  Episcopal  Academy, 
and  I  think  I  may  venture  the  suggestion  that  he  has  never 
found  himself  in  a  more  congenial  environment  than  in  the 
middle  of  a  group  of  boys.  The  teaching  experience  has 
kept  him  young  and  has  made  him  hospitable  to  new  ideas ; 
but  on  the  other  hand,  he  has  been  wise  in  insisting  that 
change  for  the  sake  of  change  is  not  to  be  desired,  and  that 
the  value  of  a  hypothesis  must  be  made  clear  before  its  ac- 
ceptance is  justifiable.  He  has  always  been  a  thinker,  has 
Doctor  Harris,  but  a  conservative  thinker;  and  that  com- 
bination is  so  unusual  that  I  venture  to  emphasize  it.  I 
have  known  a  great  many  men  whose  conservatism  has  been 
wholly  untouched  by  thought,  and  a  great  many  thinkers 


21 

whose  conclusions  have  never  been  restrained  by  reverence. 
There  has  been  nothing  parochial  or  narrow  or  pro- 
vincial in  the  scope  of  Doctor  Harris's  interests.  He  has 
always  been  keenly  alive  to  community  problems,  and  he 
has  stood  forth  as  the  courageous  champion  of  righteousness 
in  civic  life  and  he  has  been  in  touch  with  the  whole  circle 
of  church  work  and  life  beyond  the  limits  of  the  parish 
and  the  diocese.  His  service  in  the  General  Convention, 
though  brief,  was  useful,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  he 
would  not  permit  himself  to  serve  longer  as  a  deputy;  for 
the  church  always  stands  in  need  of  men  in  her  councils 
who  combine,  as  he  does,  practical  wisdom  and  vital 
Christianity. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  fifty  years  of  his  service  here, 
the  tendency  among  Christian  people  to  disintegrate  in  their 
church  relationships  had  not  yet  been  checked.  Within  the 
limits  of  that  fifty-year  period  new  sects  and  novel  cults 
have  come  into  existence.  Perhaps  we  fail  to  realize  it,  but 
the  fact  is  that  there  are  many  large  and  influential  groups 
of  Christians  aspiring  to  be  known  by  the  noble  name  of 
"churches"  whose  lives  are  shorter,  not  merely  than  the  life 
of  this  parish,  but  shorter  than  the  period  of  Doctor  Harris's 
ministry.  Under  such  conditions  there  sometimes  arises  in 
a  man's  breast  the  suspicion  that  after  all  there  are  no 
fundamental  and  fixed  beliefs,  and  that  Christianity  is 
merely  a  generic  term  for  various  individual  apprehensions 
of  truth.  I  call  upon  such  a  man  to  reassure  himself  by 
contemplating  the  continuous  witness  which  our  church  has 
borne,  not  merely  to  the  validity,  but  to  the  intellectual 
necessity  of  fixed  beliefs.  I  remind  him  that  we  place  our 
emphasis  upon  holy  orders,  not  because  an  order  involving 
the  idea  of  succession  is  merely  a  governmental  scheme,  but 
an  institution  for  the  conservation  of  fixed  and  fundamental 
ideas.  We  should  be  devoutly  thankful  that  such  an  order 
is  our  Catholic  heritage,  and  profoundly  grateful,  too,  that 
we  are  continually  refreshed  and  revived  by  insistence  on 
the  principle  emphasized  so  strongly  in  the  Reformation, 
that  all  organization  must  be  vitalized  by  devotion,  and  that 
God  is  Spirit,  and  that  those  who  worship  Him  must  wor- 
ship Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  It  was  into  an  order  so 
conceived  that,  called  by  the  Spirit,  Doctor  Harris  stepped 
early  in  the  days  of  his  service,  and  from  that  time  onward 
his  life  and  work  became  the  manifestation  of  that  contin- 
uity for  which  his  order  stands.  His  has  been  the  clear 
vision  which  enables  him  to  see  that  fixed  and  fundamental 
Christian  truths  are  few  and  simple.    Not  the  least  impor- 


22 

tant  part  of  his  message  has  been  his  insistence  to  his  par- 
ishioners that  the  controversies  of  history  have  raged  rather 
about  the  man-made  explanations  of  divine  facts  than  about 
the  facts  themselves.  It  is  as  if  he  had  been  insistent  in 
reminding  us  of  the  difference  between  astronomy  and  the 
stars.  The  men  of  science  may  differ  as  they  will  respecting 
their  theories  of  the  universe,  but  all  the  while  the  stars 
keep  on  shining. 

My  friends,  an  occasion  such  as  this  must  have  in  it 
an  element  of  pain  to  Doctor  Harris,  for,  if  I  know  him, 
and  I  think  I  do,  while  we  are  eulogizing  him,  there  must  be 
uppermost  in  his  mind  the  thought  of  his  own  unworthiness. 
I  am  sure  that  if  he  were  to  speak  to-night,  he  would  tell 
you  that  far  more  valuable  to  him  than  words  of  eulogy, 
would  be  a  spiritual  fruitage  of  his  ministry,  manifested 
in  the  devoted  lives  of  his  parishioners.  If  the  time  past 
in  his  life  has  sufficed  for  the  seed-time  it  is  for  us,  his 
parishioners  and  friends,  to  see  to  it  that  the  remaining 
years  of  his  ministry  are  the  years  of  harvest — the  time 
for  the  garnering  of  the  grain.  If  we  let  this  fiftieth  anni- 
versary go  by  without  renewing  our  pledges  of  loyalty  to 
Our  Lord,  without  forming  afresh  our  own  resolutions  of 
noble  living,  he  may  well  lament  the  comparison  between 
the  petty  done  and  the  undone  vast.  Memory,  my  friends, 
is  a  mere  luxury  unless  from  its  storehouse  we  can  draw 
inspiration  for  the  work  of  the  future.  We  should  be  eager 
to  recall  the  events  of  this  long  ministry  chiefly  because 
they  are  a  challenge  to  us  to  act  in  the  living  present.  I 
know  that  I  do  not  misinterpret  the  thought  in  Doctor  Har- 
ris's heart  to-night  if  I  conclude  with  the  suggestion  that, 
after  all  words  of  eulogy  have  been  said,  we  shall  bring 
greater  gladness  into  his  heart  than  in  any  other  way  if 
we  unite  in  praying  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts  the 
fervent  prayer  of  the  poet : 

"Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet. 
Lest  we  forget — lest  we  forget." 


Francis  A.  Lewis,  Esq.,  said : 

I  do  not  recall,  Mr.  Chairman,  ever  to  have  received  an 
invitation  which  gave  me  greater  personal  pleasure  to  accept 
than  that  which  brings  me  here  to-night,  and  this  for  two 
reasons.    First,  it  is  a  privilege  to  do  honor  to  the  Rector 


of  this  Church,  a  Rector  of  such  long  standing,  and  secondly, 
there  is  a  personal  pleasure  involved,  because  my  boyhood 
and  early  manhood  were  spent  in  this  parish.  It  is  a  sort 
of  privilege  to  be  brought  back  to  what  may  be  called  a 
family  gathering.  If  in  what  I  shall  very  briefly  say  I  may 
seem  to  dwell  more  upon  the  past  than  upon  the  present,  it 
is  not  with  any  intention  to  disparage  what  may  have  hap- 
pened in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  but  simply  because 
my  knowledge  of  the  parish  was  that  of  the  earlier  time. 

What  was  Chestnut  Hill  when  Doctor  Harris  came 
here  in  1863?  It  was  simply  the  summer  residence  of  a 
number  of  well-to-do  people  of  Philadelphia.  It  was  crude, 
yes,  very  crude.  It  was  inconvenient,  exceedingly  incon- 
venient. Trains  ran  only  on  one  road,  and  these  at  two 
hours'  interval,  and  their  going  or  prospective  going  was 
always  signalized  by  the  blowing  of  a  five-minute  whistle. 
Those  were  the  days  when  Doctor  Harris  came  here,  and 
similar  conditions  obtained  for  years  thereafter.  But  was 
that  all  of  it?  Oh,  no.  He  came  to  minister  to  a  very  re- 
markable congregation,  a  congregation  of  which  I  do  not 
know  where  to  find  the  exact  counterpart.  I  have  no  objec- 
tion to  mentioning  names.  These  men  are  all  dead  and 
gone,  but  their  memory  lives,  and  I  shall  mention  them 
because  in  the  retrospect  that  I  make  here  of  my  boyhood 
and  young  manhood,  I  can  see  them  sitting  in  these  very 
pews.  I  can  see  Alexander  Biddle  and  John  Bohlen,  Judge 
Thayer  and  Richard  Vaux,  William  Henry  Trotter  and 
Richard  C.  McMurtrie,  Charles  Piatt  and  Edward  S. 
Buckley,  Caleb  Cope  and  George  W.  Biddle  and  George  C. 
Morris,  and  many  more  whom  I  cannot  recall  just  at  the 
moment,  but  whom  I  do  not  mean  to  neglect.  They  repre- 
sented everything  that  was  good,  everything  that  was  in- 
telligent, everything  that  was  astute,  everything  that  stood 
for  good  in  the  community  in  which  they  lived.  What  must 
have  been  the  influence  of  a  Rector  such  as  Doctor  Harris 
upon  those  men,  and  what  must  have  been  the  influence  of 
those  men  upon  Doctor  Harris?  It  is  only  necessary  to 
suggest  such  a  thing  to  have  you  follow  out  your  own  line 
of  thought  to  a  conclusion.  Living  in  a  summer  community, 
although  constantly  enlarging,  having  in  front  of  him  every 
Sunday  and  to  talk  to  every  week  day,  men  of  this  calibre, 
must  have  been  an  inspiration  to  him;  and  he  came  with  a 
trained  mind  to  his  work,  not  only  with  a  trained  mind  but 
with  a  good  spirit,  to  pass  his  lot  in  amongst  these  people, 
and  to  have  what  is  called  his  influence  over  them.  There 
is  a  great  mistake  as  to  what  influence  is.    Influence  must 


24 

be  preceded  by  effluence.  A  man  who  is  to  be  influenced 
must  be  influenced  because  something  has  flown  into  him 
out  of  somebody  else,  and  that  is  exactly  what  happened 
both  from  Doctor  Harris  on  his  people,  and  from  his  people 
upon  him.  Then  again,  some  men  are  always  courting  in- 
fluence, some  men  are  always  trying  to  see  how  influential 
they  can  be.  But  someone  has  said:  "Influence  is  like 
originality,  the  way  to  get  it  is  to  forget  it."  The  man  who 
tries  to  be  influential  may  become  powerful  as  some  very 
rich  man  because  of  his  money,  but  one  will  never  become 
influential  unless  his  force  of  character,  his  force  of  good- 
ness, his  force  of  standing  for  something  creates  the  influ- 
ence from  him. 

I  recall  many  of  those  early  days  very  well.  I  recall 
the  night  of  Lee's  surrender,  when  my  own  dear  father 
called  on  Doctor  Harris  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  or  Doctor 
Harris  called  on  him,  I  do  not  remember  which,  and  they 
went  down  on  that  April  night  to  ring  that  bell  there  to  tell 
of  the  victory  of  Grant  over  Lee.  It  was  in  a  pew  over 
yonder  that  I  heard  in  a  whisper  from  my  father  the  Satur- 
day before  the  Easter,  1865,  of  the  assassination  of  Mr. 
Lincoln.  There  is  one  other  thing  that  has  always  impressed 
me,  and  that  was  the  way  in  which  Doctor  Harris  so  partic- 
ularly understood  and  so  well  realized  how  to  deal  sanely 
with  people's  idiosyncrasies,  if  you  so  choose  to  call  them. 
For  example,  I  distinctly  recall  that  the  length  of  the  sermon 
was  always  in  summer  time  when  I  lived  here  in  the  inverse 
ratio  to  the  height  of  the  thermometer.  If  you  came  here 
on  a  cool  Sunday  you  might  get  a  twenty-five  minute  ser- 
mon, but  if  you  came  with  the  thermometer  at  90,  there  was 
not  the  smallest  probability  of  it.  The  spirit  may  have  been 
willing,  but  the  weakness  of  the  congregational  flesh  was 
realized.  The  sermons  made  impressions  on  those  who 
heard  them.  They  made  impressions  upon  my  boyish  mind. 
I  suppose  our  beloved  church  has  a  reason  for  everything  it 
does.  I  do  not  know  what  the  particular  reason  is  that  the 
story  of  Joseph  and  his  various  vicissitudes  should  be  as- 
signed to  the  warmest  Sunday  mornings  in  summer,  but  so 
they  are.  It  may  be  because  Joseph  was  something  of  a 
dreamer  and  heat  invites  sleep  and  dreams.  It  may  be 
because  he  passed  a  large  portion  of  his  life  in  Egypt,  which 
has  a  very  hot  climate ;  but  whatever  the  reason,  we  always 
hear  the  story  of  Joseph  read  over  again  in  the  summer. 
Doctor  Harris  was  quite  equal  to  this,  and  I  recollect  a  ser- 
mon that  he  prepared  in  the  early  years  of  his  ministry 
from  the  text,  "Behold  this  dreamer  cometh."     It  was  a 


25 

wonderful  sermon,  it  was  a  lurid  sermon;  and  as  it  was 
preached  at  least  bi-ennially  I  became  thoroughly  familiar 
with  its  contents.  But  there  was  always  a  demand  for  that 
sermon. 

Now  one  who  can  preach  sermons  which  leave  an  im- 
pression on  the  mind  forty  years  afterwards,  not  only  of 
their  text  but  of  their  contents,  must  be  having  a  very  large 
spiritual  influence  on  the  community  to  which  he  preaches, 
and  that  is  evidenced  by  the  large  number  of  people  who 
are  constantly  attending  this  church.  His  church  was  al- 
ways full  in  summer  time,  in  winter  not  so  full  because 
there  were  not  so  many  people  here.  And  it  was  not  a  cool 
church.  I  recollect  that  one  of  the  issues  of  the  early  times 
here  in  this  church,  was  the  question,  what  point  the  ther- 
mometer had  to  reach  in  order  that  yonder  door  should  be 
kept  open.  Mr.  Caleb  Cope  sat  where  I  see  my  friend  Mr. 
Samuel  Dickson  now  sitting,  and  he  was  a  very  old  man. 
He  sang,  sometimes  at  variance  with  the  choir,  but  he 
always  sang;  and  that  door  was  never  under  any  circum- 
stances to  be  opened  on  his  head,  because  it  created  a  draft 
likely  to  give  him  cold.  Those  were  some  of  the  incidents 
of  Doctor  Harris's  early  ministry,  albeit  perhaps  not  im- 
portant, yet  making  some  impression  on  a  childish  mind. 

I  have  been  asked  to  say  a  word,  and  I  very  gladly  do 
so  as  to  Doctor  Harris's  influence  in  the  diocese  of  Penn- 
sylvania. He  came  into  the  ministry  under  the  greatest 
bishop  that  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania  has  ever  seen, 
Alonzo  Potter;  and  no  one  with  any  mind  could  come  into 
the  ministry  under  his  directorship,  so  to  speak,  without 
in  a  measure  imbibing  some  of  the  good  sense,  the  sound 
judgment,  the  profound  wisdom  if  you  choose  to  call  it,  of 
that  great  man.  In  all  these  years  he  has  sat  in  the  Con- 
vention, and  I  have  happened  to  have  been  with  him  there 
for  thirty  years  past.  If  I  am  asked  to  point  out  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  Doctor  Harris's  influence  upon 
the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  I  should  call  it  his  sanity,  his 
looking  at  things  from  a  sane  point  of  view.  There  are 
so  many  people  who  mean  well  and  are  perfectly  justified 
in  remaining  outside  an  insane  asylum,  but  nevertheless 
have  not  what  are  called  sane  minds.  He  always  looked  at 
what  practically  could  be  done  to  produce  a  given  result. 
If  he  saw  visions  he  kept  them  to  himself,  the  man  is  wise 
who  does,  because  people  who  see  visions  are  very  apt  to 
be  visionary.  So  it  is,  that  through  these  years  his  influ- 
ence has  alv/ays  been  extending,  always  been  widening, 
always  been  broadening,  simply  because,  with  the  ripeness 


26 

of  his  years  has  come  the  grand  sanity  of  his  judgment. 
Mr.  Pepper  alluded  to  the  fact  that  he  had  sat  in  a  General 
Convention.  If  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania  has  had  its 
way,  he  would  be  sitting  there  still,  and  it  is  a  great  pity 
that  he  refused  to  continue  a  Deputy  long  years  ago,  be- 
cause, as  he  once  confided  to  me,  he  regarded  the  General 
Convention  as  a  great  bore.  It  probably  is,  but  at  the  same 
time  some  of  us  have  got  to  go  there,  and  I  always  regretted 
very  much  that  a  man  like  Doctor  Harris  had  not  been 
willing  to  sit  there  all  these  years  and  contribute  his  sanity 
and  ripe  judgment  to  so  many  of  the  problems  that  come 
before  that  body. 

I  must  not  go  on.  The  time  allotted  to  me  has  already 
I  should  imagine  more  than  expired.  But  as  I  stand  here 
in  this  church  to-night,  my  mind  is  filled  not  only  with  the 
memories  of  which  I  have  spoken,  but  with  a  profound 
thankfulness  to  Almighty  God  that  this  particular  function, 
the  particular  meetings  of  yesterday  and  to-day,  have  actu- 
ally taken  place;  and  I  have  reason  for  saying  this.  The 
incident  may  not  be  unfamiliar  to  you  all,  it  may  possibly 
be  known  to  some.  A  number  of  years  ago  there  died  in 
New  York  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  that  our  church 
has  ever  produced,  the  Reverend  Edward  Washburn,  at  the 
time  of  his  death  Rector  of  Calvary  Church,  New  York. 
After  the  funeral  services  had  been  held,  the  clergy  who 
were  present  asked  permission  to  meet  in  the  late  Rector's 
study,  that  they  might  pass  some  appropriate  resolutions 
upon  his  death.  Permission  was  granted,  and  the  meeting 
was  in  progress.  Speech  after  speech  had  been  made  by 
the  clergy  present,  dwelling  as  they  well  might,  in  the  high- 
est terms  on  his  wonderful  mind,  his  wonderful  character, 
his  wonderful  genius,  his  wonderful  ability;  and  as  they 
were  pouring  out  these  true  but  belated  words,  the  door 
of  the  study,  which  no  one  noticed  to  have  been  ajar,  was 
suddenly  thrown  open  and  into  this  meeting  came  a  woman, 
the  widow  of  Doctor  Washburn,  her  hands  held  together, 
tense  with  grief,  tense  with  excitement;  and  she  said  to 
those  men,  "Oh,  gentlemen,  if  you  loved  Edward  so  much, 
why  did  you  not  tell  him  so  when  he  was  alive?"  Doctor 
Harris,  it  is  because  we  all  love  you  so,  that  we  have  come 
here  to  tell  you  so  when  you  are  alive. 


27 

Edward  S.  Buckley,  Jr.,  Esq.,  said: 

I  am  very  sure  that  I  can  add  but  little  to  what  has 
been  so  well  said  here  to-night,  but  I  have  been  given  a  very 
great  privilege,  and  I  feel  that  the  only  claim  that  I  have 
to  the  great  pleasure  before  me,  lies  in  the  fact  of  my  long 
connection  with  Saint  Paul's  Parish,  that  it  has  been  my 
privilege  to  have  been  one  of  your  flock,  my  dear  sir, 
throughout  your  whole  incumbency,  and  that  ever  since 
I  was  a  very  little  child,  you  have  been  to  me  a  father.  As 
I  stand  here  to-night  and  look  back  over  the  past  fifty  years, 
I  cannot  help  but  feel  that  I  am  here  to  speak  not  only  for 
those  whose  privilege  it  is  to  be  with  you  now,  but  for  all 
those  to  whom  you  have  so  faithfully  ministered  and  whom 
we  believe,  under  your  guidance,  are  now  numbered  among 
the  saints  of  God  at  rest.  It  would  be  easy  to  give  figures 
to  show  the  wonderful  work  which  you  have  accomplished 
at  Chestnut  Hill,  but  figures  cannot  tell  the  whole  or  even 
the  best  part  of  what  you  have  done  for  the  people  of  Saint 
Paul's.  You  have  taken  many  of  us  in  your  arms  and  placed 
the  Master's  own  sign  upon  our  brows.  You  have  taught  us 
and  led  us  to  the  Bishop  to  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  with  your  own  hands  you  have  given  to  many 
of  us  our  first  communion.  You  have  blessed  and  sanctified 
in  God's  name  our  marriages,  you  have  ministered  to  our 
sick  and  dying,  you  have  laid  to  rest  those  whom  we  have 
loved  and  who  now  stand  in  His  presence,  and  testify  that 
through  long  years,  by  day  and  by  night,  always  faithfully, 
always  lovingly,  you  have  fed  His  sheep,  you  have  fed  His 
lambs.  I  believe  that  in  a  very  real  sense  they  are  with  us 
to-night,  and  in  their  name  and  in  the  name  of  this  con- 
gregation, your  flock  there  and  your  flock  here,  I  beg  you 
to  accept  this  gift  as  an  evidence  of  the  love  of  all  those  for 
whom  your  life  has  been  spent. 


Mr.  Buckley  then  handed  to  the  Rector  a  pocketbook 
containing  a  certificate  of  deposit  for  a  sum  of  money  which 
had  been  contributed  by  the  parishioners,  and  by  other 
friends  of  the  Rector,  as  an  expression  of  their  respect  and 
affection  for  him. 

The  Rector  then  pronounced  the  benediction  and  the 
meeting  adjourned. 


SERMON 


OF  THE 


REVEREND  JOHN  ANDREWS  HARRIS,  D.  D, 

DELIVERED  AT 

ST.    PAUL'S    CHURCH 

CHESTNUT  HILL 


22d  JUNE,  1913 

AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  VESTRY 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH   OF  ST.   PAUL'S   PARISH 


About  the  middle  of  the  last  century  there  was  ap- 
parently no  probability  that  such  a  parish  as  St.  Paul's 
now  is  would  ever  be  here.  What  led  to  its  formation  is 
thus  stated  by  its  first  rector  in  the  parish  register: 

The  beginning  of  Episcopal  services  at  Chestnut  Hill 
was,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  in  the  early  fifties  of  the 
last  century.  Mrs.  Anna  M.  Scheetz,  then  residing  on  the 
Hill,  having  been  educated  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  was  desirous  to  secure  for  herself  and  neighborhood 
the  benefit  ...  of  its  calm  order  and  elevated  Chris- 
tian influence,  and  by  special  effort  secured,  for  a  short 
time,  the  ministrations  of  the  Rev.  George  Hopkins,  then 
residing  in  Philadelphia,  without  parochial  charge.  The 
material  for  a  congregation  then,  however,  was  too  scanty. 
Very  few  Episcopalians  were  to  be  found  throughout  the 
neighborhood.  Other  denominations  of  Christians  had  al- 
most a  monopoly  of  the  ground.  Strong  prejudices  existed 
in  the  minds  of  many  against  the  church.  After  a  some- 
what languishing  life  of  but  a  few  months,  the  removal 
of  Mrs.  Scheetz  to  Philadelphia  put  an  end  to  the  effort 
for  a  time. 

The  population  of  the  Hill  meanwhile  went  on  increas- 
ing. The  beauty  of  the  surrounding  scenery,  the  elevation 
and  healthfulness  of  the  position,  the  nearness  to  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  and  the  gradual  growth  of  the  facilities  of 
communication  with  it,  made  the  place  more  and  more  one 
of  desirable  resort,  especially  for  summer  residence.  The 
artistic  taste  of  Colonel  Cephas  G.  Childs,  then  a  resident 
in  Germantown,  was  strongly  attracted  by  the  beauties  of 
the  region.  He  visited  it  frequently  in  his  daily  drives; 
became  more  and  more  interested  in  it;  drew  the  attention 
of  his  numerous  friends  to  it,  and,  finally,  made  it  his  place 
of  residence,  in  1852  or  1853.  To  him  and  his  efforts  the 
growth  of  the  place  from  that  time  is  very  greatly  due. 
His  large  acquaintance,  his  well-known  taste,  and  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  he  threw  himself  into  any  favorite 
enterprise,  contributing  to  bring  the  Hill  more  and  more 
into  notice,  and  induced  an  increasing  desire  with  many  to 
avail  themselves  of  its  advantages.    Among  those  who  early 

31 


32 

secured  these  for  themselves  by  the  purchase  of  lots  and 
erection  of  residences  were  William  Piatt,  Esq.,  with  his 
sons,  Clayton  T.,  Charles  and  William,  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Emily  Pepper,  widow  of  David  Pepper,  Esq.,  and  his  son- 
in-law.  Dr.  William  Pepper;  John  Bohlen,  Esq.,  with  his 
mother,  Mrs.  Jane  Bohlen,  and  sister  Miss  Catharine; 
Thomas  Earp,  Jr.,  Esq.;  Charles  Taylor,  Esq.;  William 
Henry  Trotter,  Esq. ;  John  C.  Bullitt,  Esq.,  and  Mrs.  Alicia 
Price,  with  her  sisters,  Miss  Sophia  Sweeney  and  Anna 
Sweeney.  These  all  had  been  either  trained  in  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  or  from  connections  and  associations  were 
more  or  less  attached  to  it.  The  same  was  the  case  with 
Frederic  Fairthorne,  Esq.,  who  (though  later)  resided  for 
some  time  on  the  Hill  in  a  house  belonging  to  Thomas 
Earp,  and  who  subsequently  purchased  for  himself  a  place 
in  Roxborough,  three  miles  away. 

Some  of  the  above  named — as  Colonel  Childs  and  Mr. 
Earp — worshiped  for  a  time  with  the  Presbyterians  for 
want  of  any  service  of  their  own  church.  Others — as  Mr. 
Bohlen  and  the  Piatt  family — attended  services  at  St. 
Thomas'  Church,  Whitemarsh,  But  the  inconvenience  of  such 
attendance  operated  with  the  increase  of  population,  and  the 
prospect  of  further  increase  from  the  opening  of  the  railroad 
to  Philadelphia  to  excite  the  desire  for  church  services  upon 
the  Hill.  Accordingly,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1853,  in  a  pri- 
vate interview  in  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Bohlen,  it  was 
resolved  between  himself,  Colonel  Childs  and  Mr.  Charles 
Piatt  to  institute  Episcopal  worship  for  at  least  the  re- 
mainder of  that  summer.  These  gentlemen,  with  Mr. 
Charles  Taylor  and  Mr.  Earp,  undertaking  to  meet  the  ex- 
pense of  such  services  as  should  be  instituted.  The  little 
Union  Chapel,  on  Sheridan  Lane,  the  birth  place  of  most 
of  the  churches  on  the  Hill,  was  the  place  selected  for  the 
commencement  of  the  enterprise,  and  on  the  second  Sunday 
in  July  the  Rev.  Kingston  Goddard,  then  rector  of  the 
Church  of  the  Atonement,  Philadelphia,  held  there  the 
opening  service  for  the  little  company  of  Episcopalians  on 
the  Hill.  Subsequently,  the  same  gentleman  more  than 
once  kindly  officiated,  as  did  Dr.  Newton,  of  St.  Paul's, 
Philadelphia;  the  Rev.  Dudley  A.  Tyng,  of  the  Church  of 
the  Epiphany;  the  Rev.  Charles  D.  Cooper,  of  St.  Philip's; 
the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Wheeler,  of  the  Episcopal  Female  In- 
stitute, Philadelphia ;  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lonnsbery,  of  St.  Jude's ; 
the^ev.  Mr.  Woods,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Atkins,  and  others.  As 
may  be  supposed  from  the  length  of  the  list  of  clergymen, 
the  services  did  not  close  with  the  summer,  according  to  the 


33 

first  design.  They  were  found  to  be  so  pleasant,  awakened 
so  much  interest  and  secured  such  an  attendance  from  per- 
sons not  specially  connected  with  the  church  that  even  when 
the  summer  residents  returned  to  the  city  they  were  con- 
tinued mainly  under  the  direction  and  through  the  active 
exertions  of  Colonel  Childs  throughout  the  ensuing  winter 
and  spring. 

On  the  return  of  the  summer  a  meeting  was  called  for 
the  regular  organization  of  a  Protestant  Episcopal  congre- 
gation, and  in  pursuance  of  such  a  call  there  assembled 
in  the  large  hall  of  the  railroad  depot,  June  18,  1855,  Colonel 
and  Mrs.  Childs,  Mr.  John  Bohlen,  Mr.  Clayton  T.  Piatt, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Piatt,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Earp,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Fairthorne,  Mr.  Houston,  Mrs.  Thomas  Mason,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Jerram,  Mrs.  David  Pepper,  Mrs.  Price,  Miss 
Sophia  Sweeney,  Miss  Steinbenner,  Miss  M.  W.  Fobes. 
Colonel  C.  G.  Childs  was  called  to  the  chair  and  Thomas 
Earp,  Jr.,  appointed  Secretary. 

A  preamble  and  resolutions  affirming  the  necessity  for 
the  formation  of  an  Episcopal  congregation  on  the  Hill  were 
offered  by  John  Bohlen,  Esq.,  seconded  by  Charles  Piatt, 
Esq.,  and  adopted  without  a  dissenting  voice.  After  an  ad- 
dress from  Mr.  Bohlen,  stating  the  objects  proposed  to  be 
accomplished,  declaring  the  importance  of  the  movement 
entered  on,  and  urging  that  it  be  prosecuted  seriously  and 
with  prayer,  those  present  proceeded  to  elect  eleven  vestry- 
men, and  with  entire  unanimity  the  following  named  gentle- 
men were  chosen :  John  Bohlen,  Cephas  G.  Childs,  Charles 
Piatt,  Joseph  H.  Hildeburn,  Charles  Taylor,  Thomas  Earp, 
Jr. ;  Frederic  Fairthorne,  Clayton  T.  Piatt,  John  C.  Bullitt, 
William  Henry  Trotter  and  Thomas  Mason. 

The  organization  of  the  Parish — which  it  was  resolved 
should  be  called  St.  Paul's  Church,  Chestnut  Hill — ^being 
thus  effected,  the  establishment  of  a  Sunday-school  was  at 
once  decided  on.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Charles  Piatt  a  meeting 
was  called  for  this  purpose  on  Thursday  evening,  June  21st, 
and  on  that  evening  the  preliminary  arrangements  for  a 
Sunday-school  were  made.  John  Bohlen,  Esq.,  and  Colonel 
Cephas  G.  Childs  were  constituted  Superintendents — the 
former  to  act  from  June  to  November,  the  latter  for  the 
remainder  of  the  year.  Mrs.  Childs,  Mrs.  Price  and  Miss 
Sweeney  were,  with  these  gentlemen,  especially  active  in 
the  gathering  of  the  Sunday-school  and  rendered  efficient 
service  in  it  when  it  was  formed.     .     .     . 

Mr.  Mason  and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Jerram  and  a  young  man 
named  John  Johnson,  also  assisted  in  the  school  during 


34 

its  first  year.  The  number  of  pupils  from  the  first  was 
small,  nearly  all  the  children  on  the  Hill  having  been  gath- 
ered into  other  Sunday-schools  before  this  was  organized; 
but  there  were  some  interesting  elements  and  an  excellent 
feeling  in  the  school. 

On  the  25th  day  of  June  the  vestry  was  fully  organized 
by  the  election  of  Colonel  Childs  as  Rector's  Warden,  Fred- 
eric Fairthome  as  Accounting  Warden  and  Thomas  Earp, 
Jr.,  as  Secretary.  Mr.  Bohlen  and  Mr.  Charles  Piatt  were 
charged  with  the  duty  of  preparing  a  charter.  With  thanks 
to  the  Trustees  of  the  Union  Chapel  for  its  use  during  the 
past  year,  it  was  determined  to  hold  the  services,  now  es- 
tablished in  the  hall  of  the  railroad  depot  as  being  at  once 
more  central,  more  spacious  and  more  pleasant. 

The  Rev.  R.  W.  Oliver  had  been  engaged  as  minister 
for  the  parish  for  several  months,  served  faithfully  till  the 
beginning  of  November,  and  then  retired  to  enter  on  Mis- 
sionary work  in  the  Western  portion  of  the  Diocese. 

On  November  6th  the  Minutes  of  the  Vestry  stated 
that  the  Rev.  Alexander  Shiras,  who  had  been  two  months 
before  informally  invited  to  the  rectorship,  was  unanimously 
elected  rector.    He  entered  on  his  duties  November  16,  1855. 


So  much,  then,  for  the  story  of  the  founding  of  the 
parish  and  the  men  and  women  who  took  part  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  movement  till  its  accomplishment,  and  in 
some  of  the  stages  of  its  progress,  but  who  have  now  entered 
into  rest. 

Before  recording  the  succeeding  steps  of  the  parochial 
history,  it  is  well  to  recall  the  names  of  others,  both  women 
and  men,  also  now  "gone  before,"  who  have  aided  and 
established  the  growth  of  the  parish  and  its  influence  in 
this  neighborhood  and  in  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania. 

Among  the  women  who  influenced  for  good  both  the 
social  life  and  the  ecclesiastical  usefulness  of  St.  Paul's,  or 
who  took  a  deep  interest  in  its  work,  may  be  cited,  besides 
those  above  mentioned  in  the  story  of  the  founding  of  the 
parish :  Mrs.  Matthew  Brooke  Buckley,  Mrs.  Edmund  Wat- 
mough  and  her  daughters,  Mrs.  M.  Russell  Thayer  and  Miss 
Juliana  Watmough,  Mrs.  St.  George  Tucker  Campbell,  Mrs. 
Clayton  T.  Piatt,  Miss  Ellen  R.  Brown,  Mrs.  Richard  Norris, 
Mrs.  Frank  W.  Ralston,  Mrs.  Henry  Reed,  Mrs.  Joseph  P. 
Smith,  Mrs.  John  Welsh,  Jr.,  Mrs.  George  C.  Morris,  Mrs. 
William  B.  Reed,  Mrs.  Richard  H.  Rush,  Mrs.  Edward  H. 


35 

Trotter,  Mrs.  William  H.  Trotter,  Mrs.  Charles  Taylor,  Mrs. 
J.  Lowber  Welsh  and  Mrs.  Joseph  Patterson,  all  these  have 
been  gathered  into  the  fold,  as  yet  unseen  by  mortal  eyes, 
where  the  veil  is  withdrawn  and  they  see  the  Good  Shepherd 
face  to  face.  The  influence  they  exercised  while  living  in 
the  parish  still  lives  and  has  put  its  stamp  upon  the  tone  of  it. 
And  as  for  the  men  (still  omitting  the  repetition  of  names 
already  mentioned  as  among  the  founders  of  the  parish)  who 
have  given  tone  to  it  and  in  their  several  walks  in  life  have 
exercised  a  weighty  influence  in  the  community  in  which 
they  lived  or  in  the  wider  sphere  of  national  matters,  civil 
and  military,  on  land  or  sea,  we  recall  among  those  who  by 
the  Master  of  the  feast  have  been  "called  from  labor  to  re- 
freshment," such  as  Messrs.  Russell  Thayer,  Edward  S. 
Buckley,  Benoni  Lockwood,  Richard  C.  McMurtrie,  Richard 
Norris,  John  C.  Sims,  Jr.;  William  C.  Mackie,  John  P. 
Brock,  Henry  Wharton,  Alexander  Biddle,  Joseph  W. 
Baker,  John  Whittaker,  Richard  C.  Dale,  William  C. 
Atwood,  Edwin  N.  Benson,  James  C.  Biddle,  Dr.  Robert 
Boiling,  St.  George  Tucker  Campbell,  Caleb  Cope,  Alfred 
M.  Collins,  Frederic  Collins,  Edmund  P.  Dwight,  Wil- 
liam E.  Goodman,  Samuel  Goodman,  Jr.,  A.  Groves,  Jr.; 
George  Harding,  William  W.  Harding,  General  Herman  L. 
Haupt,  Charles  Heebner,  Morton  P.  Hpnry,  Samuel  S.  Hol- 
lingsworth,  R.  Winder  Johnson,  Prof.  Francis  A.  Jackson, 
Spencer  M.  Janney,  Lawrence  Lewis,  Francis  A.  Lewis,  Sr. ; 
Robert  M.  Lewis,  Henry  S.  Lowber,  John  T.  Montgomery, 
George  C.  Morris,  Henry  L.  Norris,  Joseph  Patterson,  David 
Pepper,  Dr.  George  Pepper,  J.  Sergeant  Price,  Francis  W. 
Ralston,  William  B.  Reed,  Thomas  Robins,  Benjamin  Rush, 
Moncure  Robinson,  Colonel  Richard  H.  Rush,  Furman  Shep- 
pard,  Samuel  L.  Shober,  Theodore  Starr,  Isaac  Starr,  Sr.; 
Edward  H.  Trotter,  George  C.  Thomas,  Edward  H.  Trotter, 
Louis  C.  Vanuxem,  Richard  Vaux,  Tobias  Wagner,  Pendle- 
ton G.  Watwough,  John  Welsh,  Jr.;  Henry  Wharton,  John 
Whittaker,  John  Lowber  Welsh  and  John  Zebley. 

From  the  list  of  those  who  have  been  prominently  in- 
strumental in  one  way  or  another  in  building  up  the  parish 
of  St.  Paul's,  we  may  revert  to  the  history  of  its  progress, 
from  the  first  rectorship,  that  of  the  Rev.  Alexander  Shiras, 
beginning  in  1855.  He  resigned  in  1860.  To  fill  the  va- 
cancy, the  Rev.  William  H.  Hare  was  elected  and  entered 
on  his  duties  on  March  19,  1861.  By  this  time  Chestnut 
Hill  had  begim  to  attract  many  more  people  as  a  place  of 
residence,  for  many  only  a  summer  residence,  owing  to  the 
poor  traveling  facilities  given  by  the  railroad  of  those  days, 


and  the  small  congregation  soon  outgrew  the  chapel.  The 
cornerstone  of  the  new  church,  the  one  in  which  we  now 
are,  was  laid  by  Bishop  Alonzo  Potter,  on  October  25,  1861. 
The  church  was  opened  for  divine  service  on  June  15,  1862, 
with  every  prospect  of  growing  with  the  population,  but, 
unfortunately,  the  illness  of  Mrs.  Hare  necessitated  a  change 
of  climate  by  the  physician's  orders,  and  Mr.  Hare  was 
granted  a  six  months'  leave  of  absence,  the  vestry  asking 
a  friend  of  his  to  administer  the  parish  during  his  absence, 
beginning  with  July  5,  1863 ;  and  that  day  coming  up  here 
from  Germantown,  where  I  lived,  will  never  be  forgotten. 
Nobody  knew  where  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was.  There 
were  all  sorts  of  rumors,  and  as  I  came  from  the  house  I 
lived  in  in  Germantown  to  the  railroad  station  there  was 
something  in  the  air.  You  know  what  an  awful  hush  there 
is  sometimes  before  a  blasting  thunder  storm — everything 
quiet,  even  the  birds  cease  twittering.  There  was  just  that 
sort  of  fog  hanging  over  everything  here.  "What  next?" 
people  were  saying,  and  as  I  came  along,  walking  part  way 
along  the  railway  from  Germantown  to  the  main  street 
where  the  depot  then  was,  there  were  groups  of  men  stand- 
ing along  the  railroad  talking.  They  were  not  talking  in 
voices  louder  than  that  I  am  using  just  now,  you  could  not 
hear  what  was  said,  but  there  they  were  waiting — waiting, 
some  of  them  trembling,  and  it  was  through  an  atmosphere 
of  this  sort  that  I  came  here  for  my  first  service,  under  the 
arrangement  with  the  vestry  to  relieve  Mr.  Hare. 

The  rector's  warden  very  courteously  asked  me  to  dine 
with  him,  and  on  our  way  back  to  the  service  that  after- 
noon we  met  a  prominent  man  of  Philadelphia  who  was 
living  here,  who  had  a  private  telegram — Gettysburg  was 
won !  Lee  was  in  retreat !  People  do  not  forget  those  days 
very  easily.  It  was  not  known  in  the  city  until  the  night 
services  of  the  churches,  and  when  I  went  home  in  the  after- 
noon I  met  similar  groups  of  men  standing  just  where  I 
had  seen  them  in  the  morning,  talking,  whispering,  not 
knowing  anything  about  it.  It  got  abroad  in  the  city  I  be- 
lieve about  9  o'clock,  the  time  of  the  night  services  there, 
and  there  were  Te  Deums  galore  all  through. 

The  same  cause — to  go  back  to  the  story — which  neces- 
sitated Mr.  Hare's  going  away  prevented  his  return,  unfor- 
tunately, and  his  substitute  was  chosen  to  succeed  him  in 
January,  1864,  thus  as  minister  in  charge  and  rector,  serving 
for  fifty  years — and  a  pleasanter  service  no  rector  has  ever 
had.    Thank  God  and  thank  you ! 

Of  course,  coming  in  this  way,  it  was  my  duty  and  my 


37 

pleasure  to  keep  things  exactly,  so  far  as  I  could,  as  Mr. 
Hare  had  left  them.  His  involuntary,  but  necessary,  resig- 
nation of  the  rectorship,  while  it  was  a  blow  to  this  parish, 
was  fortunately  ordered  by  Divine  Providence  to  be  a  great 
blessing  to  the  church  at  large.  No  Bishop  in  this  church 
has  left  a  more  magnificent  record  of  his  devoted  work  than 
did  he  who  became  the  Right  Reverend  William  Hobart 
Hare,  Doctor  of  Divinity.  When  he  left  this  parish,  soon 
afterwards  he  was  appointed  secretary  of  the  Committee 
of  the  General  Board  of  Missions,  of  Foreign  Missions,  and 
that  brought  him  into  prominence  in  the  Church,  and  he 
had  so  ministered  his  oflEice  in  that  capacity  that  when  it 
was  a  question  in  the  General  Convention  of  sending  out 
somebody  to  the  Far  West  to  minister  to  the  souls  of  the 
wild  Indians  there,  he  was  chosen.  He  was  assigned  the 
district  called  the  Missionary  District  of  Niobrara,  in  South 
Dakota,  which  was  inhabited  chiefly  by  Indians,  and  the 
magnificent  work  he  did  there,  the  perils  he  went  through, 
the  labors  he  performed,  the  devotion  that  he  showed,  can- 
not be  properly  expressed  in  words.  Afterwards  he  became 
Bishop  of  South  Dakota,  which  was  an  enlarged  sphere,  in- 
cluding both  whites  and  Indians  of  Niobrara.  The  part  of 
his  life  work  as  completed  in  succeeding  years  was  one  of 
weariness  and  painfulness.  He  suffered  intense  pain  all 
the  time,  but  never  faltered.  He,  if  any  man  could  become 
such,  was  a  Christian  hero,  and  if  he  had  not  been  removed 
from  this  parish,  owing  to  the  causes  mentioned,  and  his 
being  translated  to  the  broader  sphere  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, he  might  never  have  been  so  well  known.  So,  when 
I  came  here  as  I  say,  owing  to  these  causes,  I  wanted  to 
keep  things  just  as  he  left  them.  It  was  my  pleasure  and 
my  duty  to  do  it.  I  found,  soon  after  coming,  in  what  is 
now  Springfield  Avenue,  then  called  Wissahickon  Avenue, 
which  was  near  St.  Martin's  Church  of  the  present  day, 
that  prayer  meeting  and  Bible  class  combined  had  been 
formed,  and  two  or  three  of  the  earnest  laymen  of  the  parish 
used  to  go  down  on  Sunday  nights  and  gather  the  people 
together  in  one  another's  house,  one  after  the  other,  and 
singing  and  praying  and  teaching  them.  Most  of  them  were 
mill  hands  at  that  time.  Those  mills  on  Cresheim  Creek, 
just  below  the  Institution  for  Deaf  and  Dumb,  were  in  full 
operation,  and  employed  a  great  many  hands.  There  were 
some  others  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  about  the 
same  station  in  life  who  came  to  these  classes.  They  met,  as 
I  say,  at  each  other's  houses,  but  the  devil  came  sometimes 
with  them;  because  there  got  to  be  exhibitions  of  petty 


38 

jealousy  and  fault-finding  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  and 
so  it  seemed  better  to  build  a  small  mission  chapel  just  at 
that  place,  where  everybody  would  stand  on  common  ground. 
St.  Paul's  congregation  very  kindly  and  promptly  agreed 
to  do  it,  bought  a  lot  at  quite  a  reasonable  price  and  con- 
structed a  small  plain  chapel  there,  which  I  think  would  hold 
120  people.  There  was  a  Sunday-school  conducted  in  it  in 
the  afternoon  by  a  devoted  woman  in  the  parish  here.  Miss 
Ellen  R.  Brown,  and  at  night,  every  Sunday  night,  for  two 
or  three  years,  I  went  down  there  to  hold  a  regular  service. 
As  long  as  the  mills  kept  open  it  was  pretty  well  filled ;  but 
the  mills  closed  after  a  while,  and  a  great  many  of  those 
who  came  there  to  worship  through  the  instrumentality  of 
the  teachings  I  speak  of,  had  become  confirmed  in  the 
church,  and  its  usefulness  as  a  mission  field  ceased.  It 
was  disposed  of  at  quite  a  good  price  and  the  money  used 
for  other  church  purposes.  But  that  mission  did  a  great 
deal  of  good.  It  was  Mr.  Hare's  work  in  starting  it,  and  it 
turned  out,  I  fancy,  to  exceed  his  expectation  in  the  results. 
The  debt  upon  the  church  building  was  paid  and  the 
church  consecrated  on  October  16,  1865,  during  the  session 
of  the  General  Convention  of  a  reunited  Church  in  that  year. 
I  came  here,  as  I  said,  amid  the  clash  of  arms.  The  church 
was  consecrated  at  the  time  of  a  reunited  church  that  had 
been  severed  by  the  sword,  and  surely  it  was  an  omen  of 
peace  for  the  parish.  There  were  clergymen  here  from 
North  and  South,  and  that  made  it  into  a  full-grown  church, 
consecrated  1865.  The  rectory  was  finished  in  November, 
1868.  The  interior  of  the  church  is  not  what  it  was  at  first. 
At  first  it  was  very  bare  and  barn-like,  rather  depressing. 
Some  changes  were  made  in  the  winter  of  1867,  both  in 
the  chancel  and  the  ceiling  of  the  church,  which  made  some 
improvement.  In  1882,  by  a  voluntary  gift  of  Mr.  Edwin  N. 
Benson,  the  present  chancel  was  built  and  a  stained  glass 
window — "Christ  blessing  little  children" — was  inserted. 
Then,  by  testamentary  gift  from  the  late  Mrs.  Tobias 
Wagner,  the  erection  of  a  parish  building  was  made  pos- 
sible, and  it  was  finished  in  1889.  Before  that  we  had  no 
place  of  meeting  for  any  church  society  except  in  the  Sun- 
day-school building,  and  that  was  rather  chilly  for  any 
sociable  meeting.  Consequently  the  work  somewhat  flagged. 
It  was  never  crowded,  by  the  way,  and  so  this  parish  build- 
ing was  found  to  be — it  was  thought  it  would  be,  and  it  has 
proven  the  correctness  of  the  thought — a  very  great  help  in 
parish  work.  It  is  used  for  everything  in  connection  with 
weekday  work  of  the  parish,  and  on  Sunday  it  is  used  as 


39 

you  know,  for  infant  schools  and  Bible  classes  and  the  choir. 
The  memorial  baptistry  was  built  in  1902.  The  Account- 
ing Warden  of  this  Church,  Mr.  Alexander  C.  Humphreys, 
was  compelled  by  business  exigencies  to  move  away  to  New 
York,  and  was  very  much  missed.  His  eldest  son  was  mar- 
ried, and  he,  with  his  bride  and  younger  brother,  went  to 
Egypt  and  up  the  Nile.  By  some  accident,  nobody  knows 
how  or  what  the  accident  was,  the  younger  brother,  a  lad 
of  about  twelve,  fell  overboard.  His  brother  immediately 
plunged  after  him,  and  they  never  saw  them  alive  again. 
That  baptistry  records  the  tragic  event. 

Another  matter  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the 
church  is  the  endowment  fund  that  was  inaugurated  in 
1904.  By  annual  accretions  it  now  amounts  to  nearly  $18,000. 
At  the  end  of  the  next  fifty  years,  at  its  present  rate  of 
growth,  it  may  reach  a  figure  which  will  be  of  important 
value  to  the  parish.  Nothing  can  be  taken  from  it  or  used 
in  any  way,  except  to  accumulate  interest,  until  it  reaches 
the  sum  of  $50,000. 

I  want  to  speak  of  another  thing,  and  that  is  the  value 
of  lay  co-operation  in  this  parish.  Of  course  it  is  so  in 
every  parish,  but  in  this  parish  it  has  been  growing,  grow- 
ing steadOy;  and  going  down  even  to  such  small  matters, 
looked  at  in  one  way,  as  the  giving  of  a  cup  of  cold  water 
to  some  of  Christ's  needy  ones,  which  will  not  lose  its  re- 
ward. Its  growth  and  earnestness  is  a  very  large  element 
in  the  prosperity  of  this  parish.  I  wish  to  emphasize  this 
fact,  that  the  whole-hearted  devotion  of  the  members  of 
this  congregation  in  this  good  work  they  are  doing,  in  the 
good  work  they  are  upholding  outside  of  the  parish  as  well 
as  in,  has  done  far  more  to  build  this  parish  up  to  its 
present  status  than  anything  the  rector  has  ever  done.  I 
want  that  clearly  understood.  One  of  the  things  that  have 
come  about  by  the  lay  co-operation,  speaking  first  of  some- 
thing which  is  an  act  of  the  laity,  is  the  choir  of  the  church. 
If  you  had  been  here  on  the  5th  of  July,  1863,  you  would 
have  heard  no  such  help  to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God 
as  you  now  hear.  The  choir  at  that  time  was  a  voluntary 
one,  a  very  small  one.  The  instrument,  which  was  called 
a  seraphine,  certainly  did  not  emit  heavenly  music,  neither 
did  it  put  forth  good  earthly  music.  But  that  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  thing.  It  required  work,  manly  and  womanly, 
because  it  was  a  mixed  choir ;  and  after  we  got  a  new  organ 
there  it  still  continued  in  its  place,  and  was  a  mixed  choir. 
Then  a  time  came,  by,  I  believe,  the  almost  universal  desire 
of  the  congregation,  for  a  vested  choir,  and  that  has  grown 


40 

and  improved  steadily  until  it  has  come  to  add  not  only 
good  music,  but  a  quiet  dignity  to  the  work  of  Almighty 
God  in  this  little  country  church. 

Then  we  have  as  fruits  of  lay  co-operation,  among 
others — I  may  not  remember  them  all,  forgive  me  if  I  leave 
out  any — the  Girls'  Friendly  Society.  I  do  not  believe  very 
many  of  the  congregation  understand  what  a  value  that  is 
to  a  Christian  congregation,  the  training  up  and  making 
friends  with  and  the  looking  after  all  the  interests  temporal 
and  spiritual,  of  the  girls  who  compose  it.  I  venture  to 
say  that  wherever  that  society  exists  it  saves  many  a  girl 
from  going  to  the  devil.  It  is  so  here,  and  the  devotion 
of  those  who  conduct  it  is  beyond  any"  words  of  praise  of 
mine.  They  have,  during  the  winter,  a  period  of  work  for 
others.  They  have,  during  the  summer,  a  period  of  jollity 
for  themselves,  and  ought  to  have  it.  It  gives  them  pleasure, 
and  pleasure  that  is  overlooked  and  kept  clean  and  pure. 
Then  the  Altar  Society,  the  Boys'  Friendly  and  the  Women's 
Auxiliary,  the  Men's  Auxiliary,  the  Junior  Auxiliary,  the 
boys'  and  girls'  Bible  classes,  Sunday-school  for  younger 
children,  the  Women's  Friendly,  the  Church  Embroidery 
Society,  which  works  for  decent  ornamentation  of  other 
churches  as  well  as  for  this  church  (altar  ornamentation, 
I  mean)  ;  and  in  the  parish  building  an  exercise  room  for 
boys  and  girls  in  daily  and  nightly  use  during  fall,  winter 
and  spring;  in  short,  a  centre  of  happiness,  mental,  moral 
and  physical,  under  wholesome  church  supervision. 

So  much  for  the  past  and  present.  What  of  the  future? 
There  is  just  one  thing  I  want  to  speak  of  in  this  connec- 
tion, and  that  is  the  enlargement  of  this  church  building. 
At  the  present  time  there  are  I  do  not  know  how  many  ap- 
plications for  seats  that  cannot  be  granted.  There  is  no 
room.  If  Chestnut  Hill  continues  to  grow  as  it  has  been 
growing  for  some  time  past,  and  if  most  of  the  people  who 
come  within  easy  distance  of  the  church  belong  to  our 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  come  here,  and  the  number 
will  go  on  constantly  increasing,  either  one  of  two  things 
has  to  happen,  either  this  church  must  be  made  larger  or 
we  will  have  two  parishes  here.  I  think,  and  I  believe  all 
the  business  men  in  the  parish  will  agree  with  me,  that  it 
is  better  to  have  one  large,  strong  church  congregation  than 
to  have  two  comparatively  weak  ones.  And  then,  where  are 
you  going  to  put  the  other?  It  may  be  a  little  further  off, 
in  some  of  the  places  not  yet  built  up,  and  be  for  the  use 
of  the  people  there ;  but  even  so,  there  would  be  difficulties 
in  the  way,  because  it  would  be  intruding  upon  the  domain 


41 

of  another  parish,  and  our  church  is  very  particular  about 
that  sort  of  thing.  In  order  to  build  a  new  church  any- 
where, to  set  up  a  new  parish  anywhere,  it  is  necessary  to 
get  the  consent  of  the  three  nearest  rectors,  and  rectors 
sometimes  have  a  little  objection  to  bringing  other  churches 
too  near  them.  They  think  that  it  would  take  off  their  own 
congregations  and  weaken  them,  but  it  can  scarcely  go 
anywhere  on  this  side,  except  between  here  and  St.  Martin's. 
Of  course  it  will  not  do  that ;  or  on  the  other  side  of  Stenton 
Avenue,  near  Grace  Church,  Mount  Airy.  But  still,  where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way,  and  if  people  cannot  find  room 
to  come  to  a  church  that  is  already  organized,  they  will  get 
one  somewhere,  and  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood,  so  as 
not  to  make  it  too  far  off  for  them  to  go.  That  is  the 
problem  that  faces  this  congregation  today.  What  shall 
we  do?  We  have  plans;  the  vestry  has  forseen  this  for 
some  time,  and  they  had  plans  drawn  by  a  very  competent 
architect  for  the  systematic  enlargement  of  this  particular 
building.  I  say  systematic.  The  fully  completed  plan  would 
be  impossible  now.  It  would  cost  a  great  deal  of  money,  but 
it  was  thought  that  if  we  could  get  enough  room  to  give  one 
hundred  and  eight  new  seats  (not  pews),  one  hundred  and 
eight  single  seats,  by  removing  the  chancel  back,  that  it 
would  be  a  very  great  help,  and  that  it  probably  would  be 
enough  for  this  generation;  because  building  is  very  much 
more  expensive  now  than  when  this  church  was  built.  This 
church  building  as  it  was  first  put  up  (I  do  not  now  include 
the  changes  of  the  ceiling,  which  are  very  great,  and  the 
new  chancel,  but  the  church  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of 
the  builder,  able  to  seat  just  as  many  people  as  it  does  today) 
only  cost  $6,500,  which  really  sounds  almost  incredible.  You 
could  not  build  it  now  for  four  or  five  times  that  amount. 

As  regards  the  future  of  this  church  building,  I  leave 
it  in  your  hands.  I  think  it  would  be  a  pity  both  to  turn 
away  people  because  there  is  no  room  for  them,  and  to  have 
another  parish  started  very  close  to  this,  or  to  the  other 
two  that  are  here  already.  It  is  for  you  to  say  what  you 
wish  done.  I  know  the  feeling  about  this  church  building, 
and  I  have  it  myself.  I  cannot  look  anywhere  here  without 
being  reminded.  But  all  those  objects  that  are  for  the 
memory  can  be  still  kept,  and  in  places  corresponding  to 
where  they  now  are.  And  after  all,  the  body  of  the  church 
itself  would  not  be  changed.  The  change  would  be  in  that 
direction  where  there  fortunately  is  room  enough  for  quite 
an  enlargement.  The  second  part  of  the  plan  added  pews 
with  a  still  larger  increase  of  space,  which  probably  may 


42 

be  left  for  the  next  generation,  and  the  final  completion 
will  make  one  of  the  finest  churches  anywhere  in  the  Diocese 
of  Pennsylvania.  But  if  we  never  begin,  we  never  get 
anywhere,  and  I  leave  this  matter  for  your  careful  considera- 
tion, and  I  trust  co-operation. 

So  much  for  the  very  brief  sketch.  I  have  been  talk- 
ing longer  than  I  meant  to,  but  I  could  say  no  less.  The 
sketch  is  imperfect,  but  it  may  give  you  some  idea  of  how 
this  parish  has  grown  up  to  the  present  time.  In  conclu- 
sion, I  want  to  say  two  or  three  words  more  to  this  congre- 
gation :  I  cannot  find  words  to  express  the  deep  thankful- 
ness that  has  taken  me  by  storm  at  your  invariable  kindness 
to  me.  Some  people  say  it  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a  rector 
fifty  years.  I  suppose  it  is,  if  you  keep  well  all  that  time, 
but  it  has  been  only  by  the  kindness,  the  courtesy,  the  con- 
sideration, the  love,  the  bearing  by  the  congregation  with 
steady  composure  many  failings,  many  faults.  I  cannot 
find  words  to  express  what  I  feel.  Thank  you,  God  bless 
and  keep  you,  and  when  the  time  comes,  as  for  me  it  must 
come  before  many  years,  may  we  all  meet  before  the  Throne ! 


THE  PARISH  OF  ST.  PAUL'S, 

CHESTNtTT    HtLL, 

From  its  Organization-  to  June,  1913. 

Rectors. 
Rev.  Alexander  Shiras,  elected  November  5,  1855;  resigned  July  15,  1860. 
Rev.  William  Hobart  Hare,  elected  March  25,  1861 ;  resigned  December  15, 

1863. 
Rev.  John  Andrews  Harris,  elected  January  26,  1864. 

Cttrates. 

Rev.  J.  Clayton  Mitchell July  1,  1892,  to  November  30,  1897. 

Rev.  Robert  Benedict .July  1,  1900,  to  September  1,  1901. 

Rev.  J.  Ogle  Warfield November  1,  1901,  to  date. 

Rector's  Wardens. 

Cephas  G.  Childs June  18,  1855,  to  April  16,  1863. 

Charles  Piatt   June  23,  1863,  to  April  13,  1868. 

M,  RusseU  Thayer April  13,  1868,  to  April  3,  1880. 

Edward  S.  Buckley April  3,  1880,  to  November  5,  1910. 

Edward  S.  Buckley,  Jr.. November  22,  1910,  to  date. 

Accounting  Wardens. 

Frederick  Fairthorne June  18,  1855,  to  October  24,  1857. 

Thomas  Earp,  Jr October  24,  1857,  to  June  30,  1864. 

Benoni  Lockwood  June  30,  1864,  to  AprU  17,  1866. 

WiUiam  Henryy  Trotter April  17,  1866,  to  November  11,  1868, 

Franklin  H.  Bowen November  11,  1868,  to  April  23,  1870. 

Richard  Norris  April  23,  1870,  to  June  3,  1874. 

Richard  C.  McMurtrie June  22,  1874,  to  April  19,  1884. 

John  C.  Sims,  Jr April  19,  1884,  to  July  8,  1893. 

Alexander  C.  Humphreys April  8,  1893,  to  July  13,  1894. 

John  C.  Sims,  Jr July  13,  1894,  to  June  30,  1900. 

Isaac  Starr  June  30,  1900,  to  date. 

Secretaries. 

Thomas  Earp,  Jr October  24,  1857,  to  June  30,  1864. 

Benoni  Lockwood  June  30,  1864,  to  AprU  17,  1866. 

WilUam  H.  Trotter April  17,  1866,  to  November  11,  1868. 

Franklin  H.  Bowen November  11,  1868,  to  June  4,  1881. 

John  C.  Sims,  Jr June  4,  1881,  to  July  8,  1893. 

Alexander  C.  Humphreys July  8,  1893,  to  July  13,  1894. 

John  C.  Sims,  Jr July  13,  1894,  to  June  30,  1900. 

Isaac  Starr  June  30,  1900,  to  date. 

43 


44 

Vestbymeit. 

John  Bohlen  June  18,  1865,  to  April  29,  1874. 

Cephas  G.  Childs June  18,  1855,  to  April  16,  1863. 

Charles  Piatt June  18,  1855,  to  April  1,  1868. 

Joseph  H.  HUdeburn June  18,  1855,  to  April  19,  1859. 

Charles  Taylor June  18,  1855,  to  April  19,  1859. 

Thomas  Earp,  Jr June  18,  1855,  to  May  31,  1863. 

Frederick  Fairthorne June  18,  1855,  to  May  31,  1861. 

Clayton  T.  Piatt June  18,  1855,  to  May  31,  1861. 

John  C.  Bullitt June  18,  1855,  to  April  19,  1859. 

William  Henry  Trotter. June  18,  1855,  to  April  3,  1880. 

Thomas  Mason June  18,  1855,  to  April  19,  1859. 

Richard  C.  McMurtrie April  19,  1859,  to  October  2,  1894. 

William  C.  Mackie May  31,  1861,  to  March  27,  1905. 

M.  RusseU  Thayer May  31,  1861,  to  March  29,  1880. 

Benoni  Lockwood  (and  Secretary). .  .June  4,  1864,  to  April  17,  1866. 

John  P.  Brock September  24,  1865,  to  Feb.  6,  1869. 

Richard  Norris   April  22,  1867,  to  June  3,  1874. 

Franklin  H.  Bowen AprU  13,  1868,  to  April  10,  1882. 

Henry  Wharton   March  29,  1869,  to  April  17,  1876. 

Alexander  Biddle   June  3,  1874,  to  May  2,  1899. 

Edward  S.  Buckley June  10,  1874,  to  November  15,  1910. 

Joseph  W.  Baker April  17,  1876,  to  March  29,  1880. 

Charles  B.  Dunn March  29,  1880,  to  date. 

C.  Stuart  Patterson March  29,  1880,  to  date. 

John  C.  Sims,  Jr March  29,  1880,  to  January  6,  1901. 

George  H.  North November  11,  1882,  to  Dec.  5,  1884. 

John  Whittaker  April  26,  1886,  to  April  30,  1890. 

Alexander  C.   Humphreys July  27,  1890,  to  July  14,  1894. 

William  Potter    November  11,  1894,  to  date. 

Richard  C.  Dale July  14,  1894,  to  May  22,  1904. 

Isaac  Starr  February  10,  1900,  to  date. 

Arthur   E.   Newbold January  13,  1901,  to  date. 

Radcliffe  Cheston,  M,  D May  29,  1904,  to  date. 

John  H.  Craig April  2,  1905,  to  date. 

Edward  S.  Buckley,  Jr November  22,  1910,  to  date. 

Pewholders  and  Seatholders. 

Abbott,  Redman  Austin,  Samuel  H. 

Allen,  Miss  Elizabeth  O.  Averill,  William  D. 
Anable,  Miss  Belle 

Anderson,  Samuel  P.  G.  Bain,  Frederick 

Andrews,  Henry  W.  Baker,  Isaac  F. 

Arnott,  Wm.  W.,  The  Rev.  Baker,  Joseph  W. 

Asson,  William  T.  Baldwin,  Miss  Georgiana 

Atwood,  William  C.  Ballard,  Ellis  Ames 


45 


Banks,  George  A. 
Barker,  Mrs.  George 
Barker,  S.  B. 
Barroll,  J.  Leeds 
Barton,  J.  B. 
Belfield,  Thomas  B. 
Bell,  Miss  Jane  E. 
Bell,  Mrs.  J.  Bowman 
Benson,  Edwin  N. 
Benson,  Miss  Harriet  S. 
Benson,  Miss  Rosalie 
Biddle,  Alexander 
Biddle,  Dr.  Alexander  W. 
Biddle,  Miss  Anne  E. 
Biddle,  Mrs.  George 
Biddle,  George  W, 
Biddle,  James  C. 
Biddle,  Miss  Mariamne 
Biddle,  Louis  A. 
Biddle,  Lynford 
Biddle,  J.  Wilmer 
Blake,  Mrs.  Peter  S. 
Blanchard,  The  Misses 
Blanchard,  WUliam  J. 
Bohlen,  Miss  Catharine  M. 
Bohlen,  John 
Bohlen,  Mrs.  John 
BoUing,  Dr.  Robert 
Borie,  Beauveau 
Borie,  John  J. 
Borie,  Mrs.  J.  J. 
Boudinot,  Mrs.  Elias 
Bounds,  James 
Bowen,  Edward  R. 
Bowen,  Ezra 
Bowen,  Franklin  H. 
Bradford,  Willard  Hall 
Brice,  Mrs.  Philip  H. 
Brice,  Philip  H. 
Brock,  John  Penn. 
Brock,  Richard  Henry 
Brown,  Miss  Ellen  R. 
Brown,  Horace  G. 
Brown,  Thornton 
Brown,  Edward 
Brown,  H.  P. 
Brown,  John  Wilson,  Jr. 


Bruce,  Mrs.  Arthur 
Bryarly,  Miss  Kate  Lee 
Buckley,  Edward  S. 
Buckley,  Edward  S.,  Jr. 
Bullitt,  John  C. 
BuUitt,  William  C. 
Burroughs,  Joseph  H. 
Burton,  Arthur  M. 
Burton,  Edward 
Burton,  George  W. 
Burton,  The  Misses 
Burton,  Mrs.  Robert 
Butcher,  Howard 
Bartow,  Josiah  B. 
Bohlen,  Robert  M. 
Bartow,  Charles  B. 

Camblos,  Pierre 

Camblos,  Miss 

Camm,  C.  M. 

Campbell,  Mrs.  Dallas  Alex. 

Campbell,  St.  George  Tucker 

Cartwright,  Henry  R. 

Chapman,  R.  H. 

Chase,  Reginald  H. 

Cheston,  Dr.  Radcliffe 

Cheston,  Mrs.  James 

Childs,  Col.  Cephas  G, 

Clark,  Miss 

Clark,  Walton 

Clark,  E.  Walter 

Clayton,  John 

Clayton,  Mrs.  John 

Coit,  Edward  W. 

Coit,  Howland 

Coleman,  Mrs.  Edward 

Coles,  Edward 

Collins,  Alfred  M. 

Collins,  Frederic 

Collins,  C.  W. 

Comegys,  Walter  Douglass 

Comegys,  Mrs.  Walter  Douglass 

Conway,  Mrs.  Martha  W. 

Cooper,  Dr.  Colin  Campbell 

Cooper,  John  Lambert 

Cope,  Caleb 

Cowperthwait,  Joseph  B. 


46 


Craig,  J.  H. 
Crothers,  Stevenson 
Crothers,  William  S. 
Cowperthwait,  Charles  T. 
Clark,  Joseph  S. 

Dale,  Richard  C. 
Dale,  The  Misses 
DaUett,  Elijah 
Davis,  Edward  T. 
Davis,  Miss  C.  B. 
DeHaven,  George  B. 
Demaray,  Mrs.  Georgiana 
Disston,  William 
Disston,  Jacob  S. 
Dixon,  T.  Henry- 
Dixon,  A.  J.  D. 
Dickson,  Samuel 
Drayton,  Miss  Harriet  D. 
Douglas,  Edwin  V, 
DuBois,  George  T. 
Duhring,  Rev.  H.  L.,  D.  D. 
Dunmore,  Robert  S. 
Dunn,  Charles  B. 
Dunn,  George  G. 
Durborow,  C.  B. 
Dwight,  E.  P. 
Denkla,  Herman  A. 
Dunn,  Edwards  S. 

Earle,  Edgar  P. 
Earp,  Thomas,  Jr. 
Elkins,  William  L.,  Jr. 
Emory,  Frank 
Emory,  Miss  Ellen 
English,  Chancellor  C. 
Eustis,  Mrs.  A.  G. 
Evans,  The  Misses 
Ellzey,  J.  Murray,  M.  D. 

Fallon,  John 

Fassitt,  Miss 
Fell,  Mrs.  EUa  G. 
Flanagan,  James  M. 
Fletcher,  WiUiam  Meade 
Fleming,  Mrs.  David 
Foltz,  J.  CUnton,  M.  D. 


Forbes,  Dr.  William 

Ford,  Mrs. 

Fox,  S.  M. 

Freed,  Mrs.  Rachel 

Ford,  Bruce 

Farnum,  Edward  S.  W. 

Gerhard,  Miss  Louisa 
Gibbs,  John  WiUard 
Giffin,  The  Misses 
Gilliams,  J.  J. 
Glendenning,  R.  E. 
Goodman,  Mrs.  S.  I.  A. 
Goodman,  William  E. 
Goodrich,  William 
Gowen,  Francis  I. 
Graff,  Charles  H. 
Graham,  Howard  S. 
Gratz,  Robert  H. 
Graver,  Miss  Leonora 
Gray,  John  Gordon 
Gray,  W. 
Griffith,  W.  O. 
Groome,  Samuel  W. 
Groves,  A.,  Jr. 
Goodman,  Samuel,  Jr. 
Goodman,  Mrs.  William  : 
Goodman,  Mrs.  Samuel 

Harding,  George 
Harding,  WiUiam  W. 
Harding,  William  G. 
Hare,  Mrs.  G.  Harrison 
Hare,  Robert  Emmot 
Harlan,  Dr.  George  C. 
Harris,  Alan  Hale 
Harris,  George  B. 
Harrison,  Alfred  C. 
Harrison,  Mitchell 
Haupt,  Gen.  Herman  L. 
Hawley,  AVarren  A. 
Hebard,  Charles 
Heebner,  Charles 
Heebner,  Miss  Julia 
Heebner,  Samuel  Y. 
Heebner,  Philip  A. 
Heilman,  Horace  B. 


47 


Henry,  Morton  P. 
Hickman,  Miss 
Hickok,  Mrs.  Gerardine  H. 
Hinkle,  Daniel  S. 
Hinkle,  G.  R. 
Hollingshead,  Joseph  M. 
Hollingshead,  Mrs.  Joseph  M. 
Hollingsworth,  Samuel  S. 
Hopkin,  Mrs.  James 
Horstman,  S.  H. 
Hovan,  Mrs. 
Howel,  Arch 

Hollingsworth,  Mrs.  S.  W. 
Hoopes,  Mrs.  Dawson 
Hopkin,  C.  E. 
Hulse,  Charles  F. 
Humphreys,  Alexander  C. 
Hunter,  Sarah 
Harris,  John  Andrews,  Jr. 
Homer,  Mrs.  Thomas  B. 
Hillman,  John  H. 

Jackson,  Charles  M. 
Jackson,  Francis  A. 
Jackson,  A.  A. 
Jackson,  Mrs.  Charles  M. 
Janney,  Spencer  M. 
Jeans,  Mrs.  Isaac 
Jenks,  John  Story 
Johnson,  R.  Winder 
Johnson,  Dr.  Russell  H. 
Johnstone,  Mrs.  Almyrah 
Johnstone,  Mrs.  A. 
Jones,  J.  H. 
Jones,  Mrs.  J.  Cowly 
Jones,  Miss 
Janney,  Joseph  A.,  Jr. 
Jenks,  John  S.,  Jr. 
Judson,  Oliver  Boyce 

Keely,  Mrs.  E.  H. 
Keim,  John  O. 
Keen,  Barton  L. 
Keim,  Mrs.  John  M. 
Kelsey,  Albert  Warren 
Kelsey,  Mrs.  A.  W. 
Kemble,  Clay 


Kent,  WiUiam  C. 

Kidder,  Walter 

Kittson,  Lewis 

King,  Edward  S. 

Kneedler,  Howard  S. 

Knowles,  Rev.  Arch.  Campbell 

KUne,  Mrs.  Mahlon 

Landreth,  W.  Linton 
landreth,  Mrs.  Oliver 
Lea,  Mrs.  M.  Carey 
Lea,  Mrs.  Charles  M. 
Levick,  Richard 
Levick,  Mrs.  Richard 
Lewis,  Francis  A. 
Lewis,  Lawrence 
Lewis,  Miss  Mary  D. 
Lewis,  Robert  M. 
Lewis,  Hermann  A. 
Lewis,  William  Reed 
Littleton,  William  E. 
Lockwood,  Benoni 
Long,  Miss  Nancy 
Lorenz,  WUliam 
Lowber,  Henry  S. 

Macauley,  The  Misses 
Machette,  E.  V. 
MackaU,  Leonard  C. 
Mackie,  William  C. 
Markoe,  Mrs.  John 
Martin,  Hon.  J.  Willis 
McCall,  The  Misses 
McCouch,  H.  Gordon 
McElroy,  Prof.  John  G.  R. 
McMurtrie,  Richard  C. 
McMurtrie,  The  Misses 
McNeal,  J.  Hector 
Megargee,  Edward 
Merritt,  Mr. 
Mifflin,  Miss 
Miller,  Mrs.  John  Faber 
MiUer,  Commander  Fred'k  A. 
Mitcheson,  McGregor  J. 
Montgomery,  John  T. 
Moorhead,  Mrs.  C.  F. 
Morgan,  Randal 


48 


Morris,  George  C. 
Morris,  The  Misses 
Morris,  Mrs.  Stephen 
Morris,  Mrs.  George  C. 
Morris,  Mrs.  R.  B. 
Morris,  Henry 
Moss,  Dr.  William 
Moyer,  Edward  E. 
Murphy,  David  M. 
Murray,  James  D. 
Mason,  John  H. 
McNaughton,  Mrs.  Stuart 
Muir,  John  W. 
Morgan,  Mrs.  Reed  A. 

Naylor,  John  S. 
Neall,  Mrs.  Frank  L. 
Neff,  Joseph  S. 
Neiler,  Joseph  S. 
Newhall,  Charles  A. 
Newton,  Mrs. 
Norris,  Henry  L. 
Norris,  J.  Parker 
Norris,  Richard 
Norris,  John  C. 
Norris,  Mrs.  Richard 
North,  Col.  George  H. 
Newbold,  Arthur  E. 

Ottinger,  Mrs.  James  S. 

Page,  Edward  D. 

Page,  Joseph  F.,  Jr. 

Painter,  Mr. 

Pancoast,  Dr.  Dillwyn  P. 

Patterson,  Christopher  Stuart 

Patterson,  Joseph 

Patterson,  Theodore  Cuyler 

Peabody,  Miss 

Penrose,  John 

Penrose,  Walter  E. 

Penrose,  Mrs.  J.  R. 

Pepper,  David 

Pepper,  Dr.  George 

Pepper,  Mrs.  William 

Pepper,  B.  F. 

Phillips,  Alfred  IngersoU 


Pidgeon,  Theodore  F. 

Pierson-Hyslop,  J.  H. 

Piatt,  Charles 

Piatt,  Charles,  Jr. 

Piatt,  Clayton  T. 

Potter,  Charles  A. 

Potter,  William 

Potter,  Mrs.  Thomas,  Jr. 

Powel,  Harford  Willing  Hare 

Price,  J.  Sergeant 

Pepper,  David,  Jr. 

Pearson,  Mrs.  D.  Appleton 

Piatt,  Charles,  3d 

Pancoast,  Henry  S. 

Pepper,  B.  Franklin 

Ralston,  Francis  W. 
Randall,  Miss  Susan  W. 
Reed,  Mrs.  Henry 
Reed,  William  B. 
Register,  Mrs. 
Remak,  Gustavus 
Riley,  Leonard  J.,  Jr. 
Roberts,  Jesse 
Roberts,  Mrs.  Jesse 
Robins,  Thomas 
Robinson,  Charles  A. 
Robinson,  D.  M. 
Robinson,  Moncure 
Rodney,  WiUiam 
Roth,  George  S. 
Rowland,  Edward 
Rush,  Benjamin 
Randolph,  Mrs.  Evan 
Rosengarten,  Frederic 
Reynolds,  John  Marbury 

SchoUer,  George 
Shapleigh,  Mahlon  S. 
Sheppard,  Furman 
Sharpless,  T.  W. 
Shober,  Samuel  L. 
Sims,  John  C,  Jr. 
Sinkler,  Charles 
Smith,  J.  Emlen 
Smith,  Mrs.  Joseph  P. 
Smith,  W.  Brentwood 


Smyth,  J.  L.  N. 
Smyth,  Mrs.  Helen 
Smyth,  Mrs.  Amanda  G. 
Smucker,  J.  R. 
Snyder,  Miss  Susan  G. 
Snyder,  W.  Frederick 
Starr,  Theodore 
Starr,  Isaac 
Stephens,  J.  R. 
Stevenson,  A.  May 
Stevenson,  Miss  Mary 
Stewardson,  Thomas 
Stewart,  Thomas  Macintosh 
Stewart,  William  M.,  Jr. 
Stille,  Charles  J. 
Stokes,  Charles  M. 
Stokes,  Mrs,  Edward 
Stone,  James  N, 
Stone,  Miss  Amy 
Strouse,  John 
Sweeney,  Miss  Mary 
Stokes,  Mrs.  Thomas  P.  C. 
Snyder,  Mrs.  William  H. 
Sexton,  William  Lord 
Steel,  A.  G.  B. 
Stewardson,  The  Misses 

Taylor,  Charles 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Charles 
Taylor,  Dr.  J.  Howard 
Thayer,  M.  Russell 
Thayer,  Gen.  Russell 
Thomas,  George  C. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  George  C. 
Thorp,  Miss  Helen 
Thouron,  Mrs.  Augustus 
Tilge,  Miss  Sallie 
Torbet,  Mrs.  Coleman 
Toland,  Edward  D. 
Townsend,  Mrs.  Edward 
Trotter,  Edward  H. 
Trotter,  Mrs.  Edward  H. 
Trotter,  William  Henry 
Thompson,  Mrs.  Archibald  G. 


Van  Pelt,  Charles  E. 
Vanuxem,  Louis  C. 
Vaux,  Richard 
Vaux,  The  Misses 


Wagner,  Tobias 
Wagner,  Mrs.  Tobias 
Wandell,  Dr.  James 
Watmough,  P.  G. 
Watson,  Mrs.  Goodwin 
Wattson,  John  B. 
Wattson,  Thomas  C. 
Webster,  David 
Weiser,  Mrs.  J.  F. 
Welsh,  Edward  L. 
Welsh,  Samuel 
Welsh,  Mrs.  Frank 
Wharton,  Mrs.  Henry 
Whittaker,  John 
Whittaker,  Mrs.  John 
Wilcox,  Edmund 
WiUiams,  C.  N. 
Williams,  Mrs.  Morris 
Willing,  George 
Wiley,  Miss 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Seth  W. 
Wirgman,  Mrs.  Charles 
Wolf,  Miss  Louise  St.  C. 
Woodward,  WiUiam  H, 
Wyatt,  Mrs.  W.  S. 
Wagner,  Joseph  W. 
Welsh,  John  Lowber 
Whittaker,  Frederic 
Whittaker,  H.  Edward 


Yeatman,  Mrs.  Pope 


Zantzinger,  Mrs.  Alfred 
Zantzinger,  Ernest 
Zebley,  John 
Zebley,  J.  Walter 
Zantzinger,  Clarence  C. 


BX5920.P5S7A3 

The  commemoration  of  the  fifty  years  of 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00050  7493 


